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THE FATKFl L MKKTlNCi IN THK ST. [J»riS HOTKL 



THE STRUGGLE FOR 
MISSOURI 



BY 



JOHN Mcelroy 



states are not great except as men may make them, 
Men are not great, except they do and dare. 

—Eugene F. Ware. 



WASHINGTON, D. C: 

THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE CO. 

1909 



^'\ 



1- 






cof-i 



COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY 

JOHN Mcelroy 



Cla.A, 2/1/1 Of'Cf 
JUL !7 1909 



DEDICATED 

TO THE 

UNION MEN OF MISSOURI 



CONTENTS. 



rilAPTER PAGE 

I. A Salient Bastion tor the Slavery Empire . 3 

II. T]iE War Clouds Gather . . . .23 

III. Nathaniel Lyon's Entrance on the Scene . 47 

IV. The Capture of Camp Jackson ... 67 

V. The Scott-Harney Agreement .... 83 

VI. The Last Word Before the Blow . . . 103 

VII. Gen. Ly'ON Begins an Effective Campaign . 118 

VIII. Storm Gathers in Southwestern Missouri . 129 

IX. Eve of the Battle of Wilson's Creek . . 147 

X. Battle of Wilson's Ckeek .... 160 

XI. The Aftermath of Wilson's Creek . . . 178 

XII. A Galaxy of Notable Men . . . . 180 

XIII. Fremont's Mar\'elous Ineffectiveness . . 217 

XIV. The Sad Retreat from Springfield . . . 237 

XV. Gen. H. W. Halleck in Command . . . 253 

XVI. Hunter, Lane, Missouri and Kansas . . 271 

XVII. Price Driven Out of the State . . . 293 

XVIII. Gen. Earl Van Dorn Takes Command . . 310 

XIX. The Victory is Won 832 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS. 



The F'ateful Meeting in the St. Louis Hotel 

The Capitol, Jefferson City, Mo 

Gen. Nathaniel Lyon . 

Gen. D. M. Frost . 

]Map of Missouri 

The Harney Mansion . 

Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson 

Gen. Sterling Price 

Gen. Francis P. Blair, Jr. 

Gen. John C. Fremont . 

M. Jeff. Thompson 

Gen. Franz Sigel . 

Gen. David Hunter 

The St. Louis Levee Before the W 

Map — Line of the Osage 

Sigel Crossing the Osage 

Gen. Henry W. Halleck 

Map — Battle of Wilson's Creek 

Gen. Samuel R. Curtis 

Gen. Albert Pike . 

Map — Battle of Pea Ridge 

John Ross . 



Frontispiece. 




3 


Facing 


10 




2:j 


Facing 


24 




20 


Facing 


32 


Facing 


48 


Facing 


64 


Facing 


80 




88 


Facing 


96 


Facing 


112 


Facing 


128 


. 


129 


. 


141 


Facinn 


144 


Facing 


160 


Facing 


192 




281 


Facing 


320 




334 



INDEX. 



Abolitionists, 17, 29, 32. 

Andereon, Robert, Maj., moves 
to Fort Sumter, 23. 

Andrews, G. L., at Wilson's 
Creek, 165. 

Arsenals, St. Louis, 35 et seq., 
37, 44; Liberty, 35. 

Asboth, Alexander, Gen., sketch 
of ; 222 et seq. ; arrives at 
Lebanon, 304 ; at Pea 
Ridge, 325 ; writes Curtis, 
333; promoted, 311. 

Atchison, D. R., defeats Col. 
Scott, 209. 



Bates, Edward, Attorney- 
General, helpvs to restore 
Harney, 96. 

Bell, John, 21. 

Bell, Wm. Haywood, ]\Iaj., in 
command at arsenal, 36; 
understanding with Frosr, 
37 ; relieved from com- 
mand, 40. 

Belmont, battle of, 264 et seq. 

Benton, Thos. H., sketch of, 20. 

Bingham, Geo. A., elected 
Treasuirer of State, 136. 

Black, John Charles, receives 
praise for gallantry at Pea 
Ridge, 341. 

Blair, Chas. W., at Wilson's 
Creek, 165. 

Blair, Frank P., sketch of, 
19 et seq. ; tliwartx Frost's 
plans, 39 et seq. ; activity 
of, 43 ; secures Lyon's as- 
signment to command, 57 ; 
procures arms from War 
Department, 64 ; marches 



to Camp Jackson, 75 ; dis- 
trusts Harney's agreement 
with Price, 98, 99 ; pres- 
ent at interview at Plant- 
er's House, 109 et seq. 

Blair, Montgomery, 40. 

Blandowski, C, mortally 
wounded by rioters, 78. 

Bowen, John S., 62 et seq. 

Boonville, Mo., 121 ; skirmish 
at, 124 et seq. 

Breckinridge, John C, 21. 

Brown, Gratz B.. Col., 65. 

Buchanan, President, on seces- 
sion, 23. 

Buell, Don Cairios, in command 
of Department of the Ohio, 
298. 

Bussey, Cyrus, Col., at Pea 
Ridge, 325 et seq. ; takes 
cavalry to Leetown Road, 
333 ; Assistant Secretary 
of the Interior, 340. 



C 



Campbell, Robert, 33. 

Carlin, W. P., Col., 33d 111.. 
245; at Big River Bridge, 
247 ; insists upon com- 
mand, 249 ; Frederick- 
town, 250 et seq. 

Carr, E. A., Col., at Cross Hol- 
lows, 316; Elkhorn Tav- 
ern, 322 ; sends to Curtis 
for reinforcementss 324 ; 
wounded, 325 ; promoted, 
341. 

Census, 1850, 14. 

Champion, Brock, 38. 

Cherokee Indians, 280. 

Choctaw Indians, 279 et seq. 

Clayton, Powell, at Wilson's 
Creek, 165. 



11 



INDEX. 



Committee of Safetj-, 43 et 
seq., 53 ; meets Lyon at 
arsenal, 72. 

Cole Camp, skirmish, 131 et 
seq. 

Cole, Nelson, at Wilson's 
Greek, 1G5. 

Commissioner from Mississippi, 
34. 

Convention, State, meets at 
Jeffereon City, Feb. 28, 
49 ; adopts Union report 
and adjourns, 50. 

Cook, A. H. W., organizes 
Home Guards, 131 ; cap- 
tures supplies, 132. 

Cooper, Douglas H., Col., at- 
tacks Hopoeithleyohola, 
283; reta-eats to Fort Gib- 
son, 283 ; joined by Col. 
James Mclnitosli, 283; at- 
tacks Indians at Shoal 
Creek, 284. 

Cotton States, secession of, 23. 

Crawford, Sam'l J., at Wilson's 
Creek, 1G5. 

Croghan, St. George, visits 
Sweeny, 45 ; death. 46. 

Curtis, Sam'l B., sketch of. 
198; assigned to command 
Army of the Southwest, 
302 ; selects Davis and 
Carr for commands, 302 ; 
base at Lebanon, 303 ; 
marches against Price. 
305 ; captures Springfield. 
305 ; forces evacuation of 
Cross Hollows, 308 ; es- 
tablishes himself at Cross 
Hollows, 309 ; Organiza- 
tion of army, 314 ; de- 
cides to make stand at 
Pea Ridge, 316 ; position 
of army. 316 ; battle of 
Pea Ridge. 322 et seq.; 
sends Bussey with cavalry 
to Leetown Road. 333 ; 1*6- 
poirt of losses, 335 ; pro- 
moted, 341. 



Davis, Jefferson, 49 ; sends ar- 
tillery for attack on arse- 
nal, 70 ; army record, 289 ; 
dislikes Price, 290 ; the 5th 
U. S. Oav., 311. 

Davis, Jeff. C, in the Lex- 
ington campaign, 208 ; 
forces surrender at Mil- 
ford, 291 ; joins Curtis at 
Lebanon, 304; goes to Os- 
terhaus's assistance, 327 ; 
promoted, 341. 

Democrats, 14, 20. 

Dietzler, Geo. W., at Wilson's 
Greek, 165. 

Dodge. Col., at Pea Ridge, 
325. 

Doniphan, Alex., Gen., stands 
by the Union, 94. 

Douglas, Stephan A., 14, 21. 

Dug Springs, engagement at, 
153. 

Duke, Basil Wilson, 38, 42; 
matures plot, 56 et seq. ; 
burns Osage River bridge, 
90. 



F 



Flags, secession, 39 ; Union 
flag torn down, 39. 

Fredericktown, skirmi.sh at, 250 
et seq. 

Freesoilism, 57. 

Fremont, Gen., sketch of, 133 
et seq. ; comes into colli- 
sion with Gen. Kearny, 
135 ; nominated for Presi- 
dent, 135 ; takes command 
of Department of the 
West, 136 ; establishes 
Court at St. Louis, 148; 
reinforces Cairo, 149; asks 
for men and supplies, 194; 
testifies with regard to 
Lyon. 194 et seq. • declaires 
martial law, 197 et seq. ; 



INDEX. 



Ill 



topples to his fall, 216; 
moves to Jefferson City, 
220 et seq. ; forms Army 
of the West, 221 et seq.; 
piTirsues Price, 224 ; Fre- 
mont body guard, 227 ec 
seq.; at Springfield, 229; 
issues joint proclamatioa 
with Price. 230 ; relieved 
from command, 233 ; takes 
leave of troops, 284 ; 
given command of ]Moun- 
tain Department, 235 ; put 
on retid-ed list, 236. 
Fro.^t. Daniel M., Maj.-Gen., 
sketch of, 36 et seq. ; is- 
sues secret circular, 39 : 
recommendation to Gov. 
Jackson, 62 ; establishes 
Camp Jackson, 68 et seq. ; 
writes to Lyon, 73 et seq. , 
surrenders Camp Jackson, 
76 et seq. ; protests to 
Harney again-st Lyon's at- 
tack, 82 et seq. 



G 



Gamble, Hamilton R., 38, 49, 
84; elected Governor, 136. 

Germans in Missouri, 14 et 
seq.; 33, 39, 44, 80, 142; 
resent Halleck's order, 
259 et seq. 

Gilbert, C, C„ Oapt., at Wil- 
son's Creek, 167. 

Granger, Gordon, Capt., record 
of. 164 ; at Wilson's Creek, 
174. 

Go-ant. U. S., sketch of, 198 et 
seq. ; commissioned Brig- 
adier-General, 244; at 
Cape Gia-ardeau, 244 et 
seq. ; orders Carlin and 
Plummer to attack Tliomp- 
son, 247; headquarters at 
Cairo, 262; starts for Pa- 
ducah, 262 ; activity of. 
263; ak BeJmoxit, 264 et 
seq. 



Greeley, Horace, views on co- 
ercion, 33. 

Greene, Colton, Capt., 38. 

Green, James S., U. S. Sena- 
tor, sketcli of, 27 et seq. ; 
defeated for Senate, 47. 

H 

Hagner. Peter B., JL\j., suc- 
ceeds Bell in command of 
arsenal, 41 ; comes into col- 
lision with Lyon, 54. 

Halderman, John A., record of. 
164. 

Halleck, Henry Wager, suc- 
ceeds Fremont, 253 : sketch 
of, 253 et seq. ; checks se- 
cession insolence, 258 ; 
slaves debarred from camp, 
259 ; explains order, 260 ; 
Department of Kansas 
consolidated with his, 297 ; 
constructs fleet of gun- 
boats, 297 ; institutes mil- 
itary commission to pun- 
ish bridge-burners, 298 et 
seq. ; writes Price, 299 ; 
commended by Stanton, 
300 ; telegraphs Curtis, 
300 ; plans for crashing 
Price, '301 ; forms Army 
of the Southwest, .302; 
orders Hunter to reinfoa-ce 
Curtis. 313. 

Hardee, Gen., asked to join 
Price and McCuUoch, 196. 

Harding, Chester, Col.. 104, 
120 ; applies to Fremont 
for supplies foir Lyon, 148. 

Harney, William Selby, sketcli 
of, 29 et seq. ; sustains 
Hagner, 55 ; attitude to- 
ward Lyon, 59 ; removed 
from command, 65 ; re- 
turns to St. Louis and re- 
sumes command, 81 ; issues 
proclamation, 81 : puts re- 
striction on Home Guards, 
82 ; approves Lyon's course 



IV 



INDEX. 



and issues proclamation, 
84 et seq. ; telegraphs Ad- 
jutaut-Genei-al for arms, 
96 ; enters into agreement 
witli Price and Jackson. 
97 ; issues proclamation, 
97 ; calls Price's attention 
'to secession outrages, 9S 
et seq. ; relieved from com- 
mand, 101 ; write.-? lettor 
to Adjutant-General, 101 
et seq. ; death, 102. 

Herrou, Francis J., at Wilson's 
Creek, 165. 

Holt, Willard P., elected Lieu- 
tenant-Governoir of jNIis- 
souri, 136. 

Home Guards, 59, 65, 99, 108. 

Hopoeithleyohola, sketch of, 
282 et seq. ; defeats Coop- 
er at Ohusto-Talasah, 283 ; 
Shoal Creek, 284; retreats 
to Kansas, 284 ; death, 284. 

Hunter, David, Gen., succeeds 
Fremont, 233; sketch of, 
237 et seq. ; gives up pur- 
suit of Price, 240 et seq. ; 
assigned to Department of 
Kansas, 271 et seq. ; trou- 
ble with Lane, 276 et seq. : 
assigned to duty in South 
Carolina, 278. 



Illinois, forays from, 39. 

Imm'gration to Missouri, 10. 

Indian Territory, tribes gath- 
ered there, 279 ; op- 
posed to war, 2!s0 ; effect 
of war storm on. 284. 

Iri.sh in Missouri, 14, 38, 40. 



.Tackson, Claiborne F., sketch 
of, 20; Inaugural Address. 
25 ; resents removal of 
gold, 41 ; reply to Presi- 
dent Lincoln's call for 



troops, 62 et seq. ; applies 
to Jefferson Davis for ar- 
tillery for attack on ar- 
senal, 69 ; receives letter 
from Davis, 69 el seq. ; is- 
sues proclamation calling 
militia into service, 119 et 
seq. ; attacks Boonville, 
121; establishes capital at 
Lamar, 137 ; hears of Si- 
gel's advance, 138 ; joins 
McCullodi at Neos.ho, 141 ; 
sets up capital at Lexing- 
ton, 207 ; calls Legislature 
at Neosho, 225; death, 27. 

Jackson, Camp, is established, 
68 et seq. ; visited by 
Lyon, 72 ; surrounded by 
Lyon's troops, 75 et seq. : 
surrender, 77 ; in charge 
of Sweeny, 79 ; account of 
stock taken, 86 et seq. 

"Jayhawkers," 274 et seq. 

Jeffei-son City, Capital of Mis- 
souri, 26. 

Johnson, Waldo P., succeeds 
Senator Green, 47. 

.Tohnston, Albert Sydney, as- 
signed to command Con- 
federate army in the West, 
243. 



Lane, James H., recruits Kan- 
sas regiments, 201 ; skir- 
mish at Dry Wood, 202; 
crosses the O.sage and 
throws up fortifications, 
202 ; mairdies to Osceola, 
219 et seq. ; burns town, 
219; sketch of, 273 et 
seq. ; elected U. S. Senate. 
275 ; commissioned Briga- 
dier-General of Volunteers, 
276; plans Southern expe- 
dition, 276 et seq. ; death, 
278. 

Legislature of Missouri meets 
Dec. 31, 1860, 24; political 



INDEX. 



complexion, 24 ; secession 
bills introduced, 32 ; de- 
claire against coercion, 35 ; 
calls convention, 48 ; panic 
after Camp Jackson, 89. 

Loxing'ton, description of, 20(j 
et seq. ; Six Days' Battle, 
210 et seq. ; garri.son sur- 
renders, 214. 

Liberty, Mo., 35 ; arsenal 
seized, 63. 

Lincoln, Abraham, IT, 20, 22; 
supports Blair's request 
for removal of Bell, 40 : 
call for troops, 62 ; 
writes Blair with regard 
to Harney, 100 ; writes to 
Gen. Curtis, 233 ; advice 
to Gen. Hunter, 238 et 
seq.; defends Hunter, 278. 

Losses, Union, Wilson's Creek, 

176 et seq. ; Lexington, 

216 ; Fredericktown, 251 ; 

Belmont, 267; Pea Ridge, 

■ 335; Boonville, 124. 

Lothrop, Warren L., reinfoirces 
Lyon at arsenal, 53. 

Lyon, Nathaniel, Capt., arrives 
at arsenal, 50 et seq. ; pro- 
tests against Hagner's as- 
signment, 54 et seq. ; pre- 
pares ai-senal for defense, 
60; elected Brigadier-Gen- 
eral of Missouri Militia, 
65 ; transfers stores to Al- 
ton, 66 ; resolves to cap- 
ture Gamp Jackson, 70 et 
seq. ; visits Camp .Jackson, 
72 ; meets Committee of 
Safety at arsenal, 72 et 
seq. ; demands surrendeir of 
camp, 76 : appointed Brig- 
adier-General U. s. v., 
100 ; in full command, 103 ; 
sends passports to Price 
and Jackson, 100 ; inter- 
view at Planter's House, 
109 et seq. ; starts for 
Boonville, 121 : skirmish at 
Boonville, 123 ; captures 



supplies, 124; Gov. Jack- 
son's letter falls into his 
hands, 127 ; welcomes Fre- 
mont, 135 ; command dwin- 
dles, 146; applies to 
Fremont for troops and 
supplies, 149 ; makes bold 
move, 152 et seq. ; requests 
not honored, 156 ; writes 
Fremont, 157 ; learns of 
juncture of MeCulloch's 
and Price's forces, 158 ; 
determines to attack, 158 ; 
Wilson's Creek, 167 et 
seq.; wounded, 170; death 
of, 171; buirial, 186; re- 
mains removed to East- 
ford, Conn., 187 ; Lyon's 
will, 187 ; Congress passes 
resolution in recognition 
of, 187 et seq. 

M 

MacDonald, Emmet, refuses 
■ to accept parole, 79. 

McCook, Daniel, at Wilson's 
Creek, 165. 

McCulloch, Ben, Gen., sketch 
of, 144 et seq. : crosses 
Missouri line with 3,000 
troops, 145 ; joins Pirice at 
Crane Creek, 150 ; assumes 
supreme command, 152 ; 
unwilling to attack Lyon. 
154 et seq. ; orders army 
forward, 155 ; attacks Si- 
gel, 172 ; reports as to 
battle, 181; delivers up 
Lyon's body, 186; ad- 
vances to Springfield, 190 ; 
denounces Missouri troops, 
191 et seq. ; at Cross Hol- 
low, 294 ; abandons Cross 
Hollow, 308 ; at Pea Ridge, 
321 et seq. ; death of, 327. 

McDonough, James, Chief of 
Police, tries to preserve 
municipal peace, 79 et seq. 



VI 



INDEX. 



Mcintosh, James, 152, 155; 
irnsTies 3d La. and 2d Ark. 
against Plummer. 169 ; re- 
fuses to combine with 
Price, 296; at Pea Ridge. 
326 et seq. ; death of, 327. 
McKinstry, Justus, Lyon dis- 
trusts him, 73 ; sketch, 
223. 
McNeill, Gen., 65. 
Marmaduke, John S., sketch 
of, 122 et seq. ; troops at 
Boonville routed, 124. 
Merrett, W. H., at Wilson's 

Creek, 165. 
Middle Class, 12 et seq., 17, 

18, 26, 96. 
JNIilitia, Gen. Frost begins or- 
ganization, 37 ; camp of 
instruction, 62. 
Military Bill, 89 et seq. ; di- 
visions organized under. 94 
et soq., lOS. 
INIinute Men organize, 38, 60. 
Mississippi River, 4, 8. 
Mississippi, State, 10 ; sends 
commissioner to Missouri. 
34. 
Missouri River highway, 5. 
Missouri, formation of the 
State <at admission, 5 et 
seq. ; early struggles be- 
tween slavery and anti- 
slavery, 7 ; slow growth of 
State, 8 ; chai-aoter of firet 
settlers, 11; German im- 
migration, 14; party lines, 
18; secession beginnings, 
19; policy of, 25; 
Presidential campaign of 
1860, 21; added to Mc- 
Olellan's command, 133 ; 
convention reconvenes, de- 
clares office.s vacant, and 
elects new officers, 136 et 
seq. 
Mitchell, Robert B., at Wil- 
son's Creek, 165. 
Mutligan, James A., is ordered 
to Lexington, 205 ; assumes 



command, 206 ; telegraphs 
Jeff C. Davis for help, 
207 et seq. ; forced to sur- 
render, 214 et seq. 

O 

Oglesby, Richard J., ordered 
to take New Madrid, 263. 

O'Kane, Walter' S., attack.s 
Cook's Home Guards, 131. 

Oliver, Mordecai, elected Sec- 
retary of State, 136. 

Ordinance of 1787, 4. 

O.'^age River, Confederates fall 
behind, 126; strategic ad- 
vantage of, 129. 

Osterhaus, Peter Josept, Ma.i., 
.sketch of, 162 et seq.; 
opens battle of Pea Ridge, 
322 et seq. 

Ozark ^Mountains, description 
of, 241 et seq. 



Pasctiall, Nathaniel, 33. 

Pea Ridge, battle of, 322 et 
seq. 

Pike. Albert, Gen., sketch of, 
281 ; commissioned Briga- 
dier-General, 282 ; force at 
Pea Ridge, 318; takes 
command upon deaths of 
McCulloch and Mcintosh, 
328 et seq. ; makes for the 
rear, 335 et seq. 

Pillow, Gideon, advances with 
12,000 men, 152; asks 
Hardee for help, 203; at 
New Madrid, 204; resigns 
commission, 269 et seq. 

Plummer, Jos. B., Capt., sketch 
of, 161 et seq. ; sends C. 
C. Gilbert forward, 167; 
commands 11th Mo., 245; 
dispatch to Carl in cap- 
tured, 248 ; skirmish at 
Fredei'icktown, 250 et seq. 



INDEX. 



Vll 



Polk, Leouidas, Gen., threat- 
ens Cairo, 148 ; establislios 
Gibraltar at Golumbus, 
243 ; Belmont, 266 et seq. 

Polk, Trusten, Senator, 28. 

Pope, John, Gen., ordered by 
Eremont to reinforce Mul- 
ligan, 208 ; captures Rob- 
inson's command, 257 ; 
strikes Rains and Steen, 
291. 

Post, Phillip Sydney, gallant 
conduct at Pea Ridge, 341. 

Prentiss, Gen., at Mount Zion 
Church, 256 et seq. 

Price, Sterling, Gen., mention- 
ed, 27 ; elected President 
of convention, 49 ; sketch 
of, 90 et seq. ; offers ser- 
vices to secessionists, 93 et 
seq. ; made Major-General 
of forces in Missouri, 94 , 
interview with Lyon At 
Planter's House, 109 et 
et seq. ; result of Inter- 
view, 118 et seq. ; turns 
over command to JMcCul- 
loch, 151 et seq. ; insists 
upon attack on Lyon, 154 ; 
reinforces Raines, 168 ; 
opens on Union front, 
174; battle of Wilson's 
Creek, 174 et seq. ; reports 
of battle, 181 et seq ; sore- 
ness between him and Mc- 
Culloch, 191 et se-i- ; urges 
McCulloch forward, 193 ; 
advances to the Alis- 
souri, 202 ; at Lex- 
ington, 207 ; reports 
as to battle, 215 ; crosses 
Osage, 224; starts for 
Missouri Rivea.-, 286 et 
seq. ; appeal to the people, 
287 et seq. ; establishes 
headquarters at Osceola. 
289; burns Warsaw, 290; 
falls back to Springfield, 
291; protests against Hal- 
leck's order, 298 ; evacu- 



ates Springfield, 305 ; re- 
ports to Gov. Jackson, 
307 ; strength of foirce, 
318; at Pea Ridge, 322 et 
seq. ; reports of battle, 
388 ; farewell to troops, 
339 et seq. 
Pro-Slavery doctrine, 7. 

R 

Raines, James S., Gen., 61 ; 
commands Second Division, 
M. S. G., 138; discovers 
enemy, 166 ; at Wilson's 
Creek, 168. 

Republican Party, 17, 25. 

Reynolds, Thos. C, Lieut.-iGov., 
sketch of, 27; letter to 
Genei'al Assembly, 31 et 
seq. ; plans for reception 
of Mississippi Commission, 
34, 42 ; assumes guberna- 
torial powers, 204 ; estab- 
. lishes military despotism, 
204 et seq. 

Ross, Chief John, 282. 



St. Louis, monster mass meet- 
ing called by Gamble and 
othei's, 33 ; aa-chbishop of, 
40; U. S. troops pro- 
tect U. S. Sub-ti-eas'ury, 
41 ; secession flag hoisted, 
37 ; riots and panic after 
capture of Camp Jackson, 
81 et seq. 

Saston, Rufus, Gen., 53. 

Schofield, John M., Gen., 65; 
sketch of, 104 et seq., 106; 
professor of physics, 107 ; 
offere services, 107 ; Major 
Home Guards, 108; at 
Wilson's Greek, 164, 171; 
letter to ^Halleck opposing 
Sigel's promotion, 184 et 
seq. ; Brigadier-General, 
261 ; organizes Mi.ssonri 
Militia, 292. 



Vlll 



INDEX. 



Scott, Winfield, Lieiit-Geu.. 31, 
GO, 108. 

Secession, 18 et seq. ; States • 
secede, 23. 

Secessionists, U. S. forts, etc., 
seized, 24 ; zeal of, 28 et 
seq., 34 ; Union men per- 
secuted by, 39 ; scoii-e 
point, 60 ; rejoice over sur- 
render of Sumter, 61 ; 
seize ai-senal at Liberty, 
63 ; lose arsenal at St. 
Louis, 66 ; attack officers 
and residences, 79 et seq. ; 
flee from city, 80 et seq. ; 
enraged at surrender of 
Gamp Jackson, 83 ; rejoice 
over Bull Run, 146 ; ac- 
quire Southwestern Mis- 
souri, 241. 

Shepard, I. F., at Wilson's 
Creek, 164. 

Sheridan, Philip H., 106. 

Sigel, Franz, Gen., mentioned, 
65 ; determines to attack 
Jackson, 137 et seq. ; bat- 
tle of Oarthage, 139 et 
seq. ; sketch-of , 142 et seq. ; 
joins Sweeny at Spring- 
field, 143; at Wilson's 
Creek, 172 et seq. ; retui-ns 
to Springfield, 175 ; placed 
in command, 176 ; reports, 
183 ; official accusation 
against, 184 et seq. ; made 
Birigadier-General, 2 0; 
reaches Lebanon, 304; at 
Pea Ridge, 319 et seq. ; 
pursues enemy through 
Keetsville, 334 ; promoted, 
341. 

Slaveholders shy, 8. 

Slavery, plans for a slave em- 
pire, 3 et seq. ; slaves in 
census of 1860, 9 ; dying 
or dead, 6, 26 ; vote on, 21. 

Slaves in Missouri, 9. 

"Squatter Sovereignty," 21, 
26. 



Stand Watie, Cherokee leader, 
282. 

Stanley, D. S., attacks Con- 
federates at Dug Springs, 
153. 

Steele, Frederick, Capt., at- 
tacks rebels at Dug 
Springs, 153 ; at Wilson's 
Creek, 164 ; commission- 
ed Colonel, 199. 

Stewart, Robert M., last mes- 
sage as Governor, 24. 

Sturgeon, Isaac H., Assistant 
U. S. Treasurer, guards 
gold, 41. 

Sturgis, S. D., Maj., record of, 
164 ; takes command on 
Lyon's death, 171 ; ordei-s 
retreat, 175 ; resumes com- 
mand, 185 ; made Briga- 
dier-General, 199; .retreats 
from Lexington, 209. 

Sweeny, Thos. W., Lieut, or- 
dered to Jefferson Bar- 
racks, 40 ; Croghan and 
Sweeny, 45 et seq. ; made 
Brigadier-General, 6 6 ; 
prepares to open on Camp 
Jackson, 75 et seq. ; takes 
possession of, 79. 

T 

Tallmadge "proviso," 6. 

Thompson, M. Jeff, descrip- 
tion of, 95 ; starts out 
from Columbus, 246 ; at 
Big River Bridge. 246 et 
seq. ; engagement at Fred- 
ericktown, 250 et seq. 

Totten, James, Gen., 54, 56 ; at 
Wilson's Creek, 163; bat- 
tery opens fire, 167. 

Twiggs, David E., Brig.-Gen., 
31. 



TJ 



Unconditional Union Men, 
39, 48 et seq., 50. 



INDEX. 



IX 



Vandevek, Col., at Pea Ridge, 
323 et seq. 

Van Darn, Earl, Gen., sketch 
of, 310 et seq. ; captures 
"Star of 'the West," 312; 
succeeds Price and McCul- 
loch in command, 312 ; as- 
sembles troops at Jackson- 
port, Ark., 312 ; hastens 
to Boston Mountains, 313 ; 
force at Pea Ridge, 318; 
plan of battle, 319; Pea 
Ridge, 322 et seq. ; retired, 
324; reports, 337; death, 
312. 

Vest, Geo. Graham, U. S. Sen- 
ator, resolution introduceil 
by, 35. 



W 

WniGS, 14, 21. 

White, Robea-t, Lieut.-Col., at- 
tacked by rioters, 80. 

"White Trash," 10 et seq., 39, 
96, 241. 

War Department, men control- 
ling it, 58. 

Wilson's Creek, 154 ; battle of, 
168 et seq. ; analysis of, 
178 et seq. 

Witzig, J. J., goes with Lyon 
to visit Camp Jackson, 71. 

Y 

Yates, Gov.. 111., 40; sends 

troops to Lyon, 64. 
Yeatman, James E., 33, 84. 

Z 

Zagonyi, Chas., Maj., men- 
tioned, 227 ; makes gallant 
charge. 228 et seq. 



The Struggle for Missouri. 



CHAPTER I. 

A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE. 




The Capitol, Jefferson City 
Mo. 



11 T'HATEVER else may be said 
of Southern statesmen, of 
the elder school, they cer- 
tainly had an imperial 
breadth of view. They 
took in the whole continent 
in a way that their North- 
ern colleagues were slow in 
doing. 

It cannot be said just 
when they began to plan 
for a separate Government 
which would have Slavery as its cornerstone, would 
dominate the Continent and ultimately absorb Cuba, 
Mexico and Central America as far as the Isthmus 
of Panama. 

Undoubtedly it was in the minds of a large num- 
ber of them from the organization of the Gov- 
ernment, which they regarded as merely a tem- 
porary expedient — an alliance with the Northern 
States until the South was strong enough to "as- 
sume among the Powers of the Earth the separate 

3 



4 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

and equal station to which the laws of Nature and 
of Nature's God entitle them." 

They achieved a great strategic victory when in 
1818 they drew the boundaries of the State of Mis- 
souri. 

The Ordinance of 1787 dedicated to Freedom 
all of the immense territory which became the 
States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wis- 
consin. The wonderful growth of these in popula- 
tion, wealth and political influence alarmed the 
Slave Power — keenly sensitive, as bad causes al- 
ways are, to anything which may possibly 
threaten, — and it proceeded to erect in the State of 
Missouri a strong barrier to the forward march of 
the Free Soil idea. 

When the time for the separation came, the 
Northern fragment of the Republic would find itself 
almost cut in tw^o by the northward projection of 
Virginia to within 100 miles of Lake Erie. It would 
be again nearly cut in two by the projection of the 
northeast corner of Missouri to within 200 miles of 
Lake Michigan. 

In those days substantially all travel and com- 
merce was along the lines of the rivers. For the 
country between the Alleghany Mountains and the 
Mississippi the Ohio River was the great artery. 
Into it empty the Alleghany, Monongahela, Mus- 
kingum, the Kanawhas, Big Sandy, Scioto, the 
Miamis, Licking, Kentucky, Green, Wabash, Cum- 
berland and Tennessee Rivers, each draining great 
valleys, and bringing with its volume of waters a 
proportionate quota of travel and commerce. The 
Illinois River also entered the Mississippi from the 



A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE. 5 

east with the commerce of a great and fruitful 
region. 

West of the Mississippi the mighty Missouri was 
the ahTiost sole highway for thousands of miles. 

The State was made unusually large — 68,735 
square miles, where the previous rule for States had 
been about 40,000 square miles — stretching it so 
as to cover the mouths of the Ohio and the Illinois, 
and to lie on both sides of the great Missouri for 
200 miles. A glance at the map will show how 
complete this maneuver seemed to be. Iowa and 
Minnesota were then unbroken and unvisited 
stretches of prairie and forest, railroads were only 
dreamed of by mechanical visionaries, and no man 
in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky or Tennessee 
could send a load of produce to market without Mis- 
souri's permission; he could make no considerable 
journey without traversing her highways, while all 
of the imperial area west of the Mississippi was 
made, it seemed, forever distinctly tributary to her. 

New Orleans was then the sole mart of the West, 
for the Erie Canal had not been dug to convert the 
Great Lakes into a colossal commercial highway. 

Out of a country possessing the unusual combina- 
tion of surpassing agricultural fertility with the 
most extraordinary mineral wealth they carved a 
State larger in area than England and Wales and 
more than one-fourth the size of France or Ger- 
many. 

All ordinary calculations as to the development of 
such a favored region would make of it a barrier 
which would effectively stay the propulsive v/aves 
of Free Soilism. 



6 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

So far as man's schemes could go there would 
never be an acre of free soil west of Illinois. 

The Anti-Slavery men were keenly alive to this 
strategic advantage of their opponents. Though 
the opposition to Slavery might be said to be yet in 
the gristle, the men hostile to the institution were 
found in all parties, and were beginning to divide 
from its more ardent supporters. 

Under the ban of public opinion Slavery was 
either dead or legally dying in ail the older States 
north of Mason and Dixon's line. In the kingly 
stretch of territory lying north of the Ohio and 
between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi there 
was no taint of the foot of a slave, and the settlers 
there wanted to "set the bounds of Freedom wider 
yet." 

The Anti-Slavery men everywhere, and at that 
time there were very many in the Southern States, 
protested vigorously against the admission of Mis- 
souri into the Union as a Slave State, and the con- 
troversy soon became so violent as to convulse the 
Nation. In 1818, when the bill for the admission 
of Missouri was being considered by the House of 
Representatives, Gen. James Tallmadge, of New 
York, introduced the following amendment: 

And provided, That the introduction of slavery, or invol- 
untary servitude, he prohibited, except for the punishment oi 
crimes, whereof the party has been duly convicted; and that 
all children born within the said State, after the admission 
thereof into the Union, shall be declared free at the age of 
25 years. 

This was adopted by practically all the votes from 
the Free States, v/ith a few from the Border States, 
which constituted a majority in the House. But 
the Senate, in which the Slave States had a major- 



A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE. 7 

ity, rejected the amendment, and the struggle began 
which was only ended two years later by the adop- 
tion of the famous Missouri Compromise of 1820, 
which admitted Missouri as a Slave State, but pro- 
hibited for the future any "Slavery or involuntary 
servitude" outside the limits of that State north of 
36 degrees 30 m.inutes. 

As in all compromises, this was unsatisfactory 
to the earnest men on both sides of the dispute. 

The Anti-Slavery men, who claimed that Free- 
dom was National and Slavery local, were incensed 
that such an enormous area as that south of 36 
degrees 30 minutes had been taken from Freedom 
by the implication that it was reserved for Slavery. 

The Pro-Slavery men, on the other hand, who 
had shrewdly made Slavery extension appear one 
of the fundamental and cherished rights of the 
South, set up the clamorous protest, which never 
ceased till Appomattox, that the denial of the privi- 
lege of taking property tin Slaves to any part of the 
National domain won by the arms or purchased by 
the money of the whole country, was a violation of 
the compact entered into at the formation of the Gov- 
ernment, guaranteeing to the citizens of all the 
States the same rights and privileges. 

They also complained that under this arrange- 
ment the Free-Soilers gained control of 1,238,025 
square miles of the Nation's territory, while Slav- 
ery only had 609,023 square miles, or less than half 
so much. This complaint, which seemed so forceful 
to the Pro-Slaveryites, appeared as rank impudence 
to their opponents, since it placed Slavery on tho 
same plane with Freedom. 



8 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

The great State, however, did not flourish in ac- 
cordance with the expectations based upon its cli- 
mate, natural resources and central position. The 
tide of immigration paused before her borders, or 
swept around under colder skies to lov/a and Minne- 
sota, or to the remote prairies of Kansas and Ne- 
braska. Careless as the average home-seeker might 
seem as to moral and social questions so long as 
he found fertile land at cheap prices, yet he ap- 
peared reluctant to raise his humble cabin on soil 
that had the least taint of Slavery. In spite of her 
long frontage on the two greatest rivers of the 
continent, and which were its main highways; in 
spite of skies and soils and rippling streams unsur- 
passed on earth; in spite of having within her bor- 
ders the great and growing city of St. Louis, the 
Metropolis of the Mississippi Valley, Missouri in 
1860, after 40 years of Statehood, had only 
1,182,012 people, against 1,711,951 in Illinois, 
1,350,428 in Indiana, 674,^)13 in Iowa, 172,023 in 
Minnesota, 2,329,511 in Ohio, 749,113 in Michigan, 
775,881 in Wisconsin, with nearly 150,000 in Kan- 
sas and Nebraska. 

More than a million settlers who had crossed the 
Mississippi within a few years had shunned her 
contaminated borders for the free air of otherwise 
less attractive localities. 

Nor had the Slaveholders gone into the country 
in the numbers that were expected. Less than 
20,000 had settled there, which was a small show- 
ing against nearly 40,000 in Kentucky and 55,000 
in Virginia. All these had conspicuously small 
holdings. Nearly one-third of them owned but one 



A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE. 9 

slave, and considerably more than one-half had less 
than five. Only one man had taken as many as 
200 slaves into the State. 

The Census of 1860 showed Missouri to rank 
eleventh among the Slave States, according to the 
following table of the number of slaves in each : 

I.Virginia 490,865 10. Texas 182,566 

2. Georgia 462,198 11. Missouri 114,931 

3. Mississippi 436,631 12. Arkansas 111,114 

4. Alabama 435,080 13. Maryland 87,189 

5. South Carolina. .. .402,406 14. Florida 61,745 

6. Louisiana 331,726 15. Delaware 1,798 

7. North Carolina. .. .331,059 16. New Jersey 18 

8. Tennessee 275,719 17. Nebraska 15 

9. Kentucky 225,483 18. Kansas 2 

There were 3,185 slaves in the District of Colum- 
bia and 29 in the Territory of Utah, with all the 
rest of the country absolutely free. 

The immigrant Slaveowners promptly planted 
themselves where they could command the great 
highway of the Missouri River, taking up broad 
tracts of the fertile lands on both sides of the 
stream. The Census of 1860 showed that of the 
114,965 slaves held in the State, 50,280 were in the 
12 Counties along the Missouri: 

Boone 5,034 Jackson 3,944 

Calloway 4,257 Lafayette 6,357 

Chariton 2,837 Pike 4,056 

Clay 3,456 Platte 3,313 

Cooper 3,800 St. Charles 2,181 

Howard 5,889 Saline 4,876 

Two-thirds of all the slaves in the State were 
held within 20 miles of the Missouri River. 

As everywhere, the Slaveowners exerted an influ- 
ence immeasurably disproportionate to their num- 
bers, intelligence and wealth. 



10 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

A very large proportion of the immigration hud 
not been of a character to give maich promise as to 
the future. 

The nev/ State had been the Adullam's Cave for 
the South, where "every one that was in distress, and 
every one that was in debt and every one that was 
discontented gathered themselves." Next to Slav- 
ery, the South had been cursed by the importation 
of paupers and criminals v/ho had been transported 
from England for England's good, in the early his- 
tory of the Colonies, to work the new lands. The 
negro proving the better worker in servitude than 
this class, they had been driven off the plantations 
to squat on unoccupied lands, where they bred 
like the beasts of the field, getting a precarious 
living from hunting the forest, and the bolder eking 
out this by depredations upon their thriftier neigh- 
bors. Their forebears had been paupers and crim- 
inals when sent from England, and the descendants 
continued to be paupers and criminals in the new 
country, forming a clearly marked social class, so 
distinct as to warrant the surmise that they be- 
longed to a different race. As the eastern part of 
the South and the administration of the laws im- 
proved, this element was to some extent forced out, 
and spread in a noisom.e trail over Mississippi, 
Arkansas and Missouri. While other immigrants 
went into the unbroken forest with a few rude tools 
and in the course of several years built up com- 
fortable homes, their's never rose above abject 
squalor. The crudest of cabins sufficed them for 
shelter, beds of beech leaves were all the couches 
they required; they had more guns in their huts 



A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE. 11 

than agricultural or mechanical implements; they 
scarcely pretended to raise anything more than a 
scanty patch of corn ; and when they could not put 
on their tables the flesh of the almost wild razor- 
back hog which roamed the woods, they made meat 
of woodchucks, raccoons, opossums or any other 
"varmint" their guns could brmg down. They did 
not scorn hawks or owls if hunger demanded and 
no better meat could be found. 

It was this "White Trash" which added so much 
to the horrors of the war, especially in Missouri, 
and so little to its real prosecution. Wolf-like in 
ferocity, when the advantages were on their side, 
they were wolf-like in cowardice when the terms 
w^ere at all equal. They were the Croats, Cossacks, 
Tolpatches, Pandours of the Confederacy — of little 
value in battle, but terrible as guerrillas and busli- 
whackers. From this "White Trash" came the 
gangs of murderers and robbers, like those led by 
the Youngers, Jameses, Quantrils and scores of 
other names of criminal memory. 

As has been the case in all times and countries, 
these dregs of society became the willing tools of 
the Slaveholding aristocrats. With dog-like fidelity 
they followed and served the class which despised 
and overrode them. Somehow, by inherited habits 
likely, they seemed to avoid the more fertile parts 
of the State. They thus became "Bald Knobbers" 
and "Ozarkers" in Missouri, as they had been "Clay 
Eaters" in South Carolina, or "Sang Diggers" in 
Virginia. 

With these immigrants from the South came also 
large numbers of a far better element even than 



12 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

the arrogant Slaveowners or the abject ''White 
Trash." 

The Middle Class in the South was made up of 
much the same stock as the bulk of the Northern- 
ers — that is of Scotch, Scotch-Irish and North Eng- 
lish — Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists 
and Dissenters generally — who had been forced out 
of Great Britain by the intolerant Episcopalians 
when the latter gained complete power after the 
suppression of the Kebellion of 1745. With these 
were also the descendants of the sturdy German 
Protestants who had been driven from Europe dur- 
ing the religious wars when the Catholics gained 
the ascendency in their particular country. These 
were the backbone of the South, and had largely set- 
tled along the foothills of the Alleghanies and in 
the fruitful valleys between the mountains, while 
the "White Trash" lived either on the barren parts 
of the lowlands or the bare and untillable highlands. 

It is a grave mistake to confound these two classes 
of Non-Slaveholding whites in the South. They 
were as absolutely unlike as two distinct races, and 
an illustration of the habits of the two in migrating 
will suffice to show this. It was the custom in the 
Middle Classes when a boy attained majority that 
he chose for his wife a girl of the same class who 
was just ripening into vigorous womanhood. Both 
boy and girl had been brought up to labor with their 
own hands and to work constantly toward a definite 
purpose. They had been given a little rudimentary 
education, could read their Bibles and almanacs, 
"cipher" a little, write their names and a letter 
which could be read. When quite a lad the boy's 



A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE. 13 

father had given him a colt, which he took care of 
until it became a horse. To this, his first property, 
was added a suit of stout homespun cloth, which, 
with a rifle, an ax and some few other necessary 
tools, constituted his sole equipment for married 
life. The girl had been given a calf, which she had 
raised to a heifer; she had also a feather bed and 
some blankets of her own making and a little stock 
of the most obvious housekeeping utensils. With 
this simple outfit the young couple were married, 
and either went in debt for a little spot of land near 
home or pushed out into the new country. There 
they built a rude log cabin to shelter them from 
the storm, and by the time their children had 
reached the age they were when they married they 
had built up an unpretentious but very comfortable 
home, with their land well cleared and fenced, and 
stocked with cattle, pigs, sheep and poultry suffi- 
cient to maintain them in comfort. From this class 
came always the best and strongest men in the 
South. Comparatively few of them became Slave- 
owners, and then but rarely owned more than one 
or two negroes. A very large proportion found 
homes in the great free States north of the Ohio 
River. 

On the other hand, none of this accession to com- 
parative wealth seemed possible to the "White 
Trash." The boys and girls mated, squatted on any 
ground they could find unoccupied, raised there the 
merest shelter, which never by any chance im- 
proved, no matter how long they lived there, and 
proceeded to breed with amazing prolificacy others 
like themselves, destined for the same lives of ignor- 



14 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

ance and squalor. The hut of the "Clay Eater" in 
South Carolina, the "Sand Hiller" in Georgia, the 
''Sang Digger" in Virginia was the same as that his 
grandfather had lived in. It was the same that his 
sons and grandsons to the third and fourth genera- 
tions built on the bleak knobs of the Ozarks or the 
malarious banks of the Mississippi. 

The Census of 1850 showed that about 70,000 of 
the population of Missouri had come from Ken^ 
tucky, 45,000 from Tennessee, 41,000 from Vir- 
ginia, 17,000 from North Carolina and 15,000 from 
the other Southern States. Nearly 40,000 had gone 
from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, but a very large 
proportion of this number was the same element 
which had streamed across the southern parts of 
those States on its way to Missouri, Only 13,000 
had entered from the great States of New York and 
Pennsylvania, and but 1,100 from New England. 
Nearly 15,000 Irishmen, mostly employed along the 
rivers, had settled in the State. 

While the Slaveowners and their "White Trash" 
myrmidons were Pro-Slavery Democrats, the Mid- 
dle Class were inclined to be Whigs, or if Demo- 
crats, belonging to that wing of the party less sub- 
servient to Slavery which in later years was led by 
Stephen A. Douglas. 

Upon these three distinct strata in society, which 
little mingled but were all native Americans, was 
projected an element of startling differences in 
birth, thought, speech and manners. The so-called 
Revolution of 1848 in Germany was a movement 
by the educated, enthusiastic, idealistic youth of the 
Fatherland to sweep away the horde of petty 



A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE. 15 

despots, and unite their pigmy Principalities and 
Duchies into a glorious and wide-ruling Germany. 
They were a generation too soon, however, and when 
the movement was crushed under the heavy hand 
of military power, hundreds of thousands of these 
energetic young men thought it safest and best to 
make new homes in the young Republic beyond the 
seas. The United States therefore received a migra- 
tion of the highest character and of inestimable 
benefit to the country. 

Somewhere near 150,000 of these went to Mis- 
souri. They had none of the antipathy of Northern 
Americans to a Slave State. They were like their 
Gothic forebears, to whom it was sufficient to know 
that the land was good. Other matters could be 
settled by their strong right arms. The climate and 
fertility of Missouri pleased them; they saw the 
State's possibilities and flocked thither. Possibly 
one-half settled in the pleasant valleys and on the 
sunny prairies, following the trail of good land in 
the Southwest clear down to the Arkansas line. 
The other half settled mostly in St. Louis, and 
through them the city experienced another of its 
wonderful transformations. Beginning as a trading 
post of the French with the Indians, it had only as 
residents merchant adventurers from sunny France, 
officers and soldiers of the royal army and the half- 
breed voyageurs and trappers who served the fur 
companies. Next the Americans had swarmed in, 
and made the trading post a great market for the 
exchange of the grain and meat of the North, for 
the cotton and sugar of the South. Its merchants 
and people took their tone and complexion from the 



16 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI, 

plantations of the Mississippi Valley. Now came 
these Germans, intent upon reproducing there the 
characteristics of the old v^^orld cities beyond the 
Rhine. They brought with them lager beer, to 
which the Americans took very readily, and a de- 
cided taste for music, painting and literature, to 
which the Americans were not so much inclined. 
German signs, with their quaint Gothic lettering 
and grotesque names, blossomed out on the build- 
ings, military bands in German uniforms paraded 
the streets, especially on Sundays. German theaters 
also open on Sunday represented by astonishingly 
good companies the popular plays of the Father- 
land, and newsboys cried the German newspapers 
on the streets. Those who went into the country 
were excellent farmers, shrewd in buying and sell- 
ing, and industrious workers. They dreamed of 
covering the low hills of the western part of the 
State with the vineyards that were so profitable on 
the Rhine and of rivaling the products of Johannes- 
burg and the Moselle on the banks of the Gasconade 
and the Maramec. 

The newcomers were skilled men in their depart- 
ments of civilized activities — far abrv:^ the average 
of the Americans. They were good phyr.ici-ins, fine 
musicians, finished painters, excellent actors and 
skillful mechanics, and each began the intelligent 
exercise of his vocation, to the great advantage of 
the community, which was, however, shocked at 
many of the ways of the newcomers, particularly 
their devoting Sunday to all manner of merrymak- 
ing. Still more shocking was their attitude toward 
the Slavery question. Even those Americans who 




GEN. NATHANIEL LYON 



A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE. 17 

were opposed to Slavery had a respect approaching 
awe of the "Sacred Institution," It had always 
been in the country ; it was protected by a network 
of laws, and so feared that it could only be discussed 
with the greatest formality and circumspection. 
The radical Germans had absolutely none of this 
feeling. In their scheme of humanity all Slavery 
was so horrible that there could be no reason for 
its longer continuance, and it ought to be put to an 
end in the most summary manner. The epithet 
"Abolitionists," from which most Americans shrank 
as from an insult, had no terrors for them. It 
frankly described their mental attitude, and they 
gloried in it as they did in being Free Thinkers. 
They had not rebelled against timeworn traditions 
and superstitions in Germany to become slaves to 
something worse in this. 

Vigorous growths as they were, they readily took 
root in the new soil, became naturalized as fast as 
they could, and entered into the life of the country 
which they had elected for their homes. They joined 
the Republican Party from admiration of its Free 
Soil principles, and in the election of 1860 cast 17,- 
028 votes for Abraham Lincoln. 

Such were the strangely differing elements which 
were fermenting together in the formation of the 
great Commonwealth during those turbulent days 
from 1850 to 1860, and which were to be fused into 
unexpected combinations in the fierce heat of civil 
war. The same fermentation — minus the modify- 
ing influences of the radical Germans — was going 
on in all the States of the South except South Caro- 
lina, where the Middle Class hardly existed. Every- 



18 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

where the Middle Class was strongly attached to the 
Union, and averse to Secession. Everywhere the 
Slaveov/ners, a small minority, but of extraordinary 
ability and influence, were actively preaching dissat- 
isfaction with the Union, bitterly complaining of 
wrongs suffered at the hands of the North, and un- 
tiring in their machinations to win over or crush the 
leaders of those favorable to the Union. Every- 
where they had the "White Trash" solidly behind 
them to vote as they wished, and to harry and perse- 
cute the Union men. As machinery for malevolence 
the "White Trash" myrmidons could not be sur- 
passed. Criminal instincts inherited from their vil- 
lain forefathers made them ready and capable of 
anything from maiming a Union man's stock and 
burning his stacks to shooting him down from am- 
bush. They had personal feeling to animate them 
in this, for their depredations upon the hogs and 
crops of their thriftier neighbors had brought them 
into lifelong collisions with the Middle Class, while 
they had but little opportunity for resentment 
against the owners of the large plantations. In 
every State in the South the story was the same, of 
the Middle Class Union men being harassed at the 
command of the Slaveowners by the "White Trash" 
hounds. They had been sent into Kansas to drive 
out the Free State immigrants there and secure the 
territory for Slavery, but though backed up by the 
power of the Administration, they had been signally 
defeated by the numerically inferior but bolder and 
hardier immigrants from the North. 

Force rules this world; it always has; it always 
will. Not merely physical force, but that incom- 



A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE. 19 

parably higher type — intellectual force — Power of 
Will. It seemed that in nearly all the States of the 
South the Slaveowners by sheer audacity and force 
of will succeeded in dominating the great majority 
which favored the Union, and by one device or an- 
other committing them hopelessly to the rebellion. 
This was notably the case in Tennessee, Virginia, 
North Carolina and Georgia, where the majority 
repeatedly expressed itself in favor of the Union, 
but was dragooned into Secession. 
" In Missouri, however, the Secessionists encoun- \ 
tered leaders with will and courage superior to their 
own. Many of these were Slaveowners themselves, 
and nearly all of them were of Southern birth. Head 
and shoulders above these, standing up among them 
like Saul among the Sons of Israel, was Frank P. 
Blair, then in the full powers of perfect manhood. 
He was 42 years old, tall and sinewy in body, blue- 
eyed and sandy-haired. He came of the best Vir- 
ginia and Kentucky stock, and had long been a resi- 
dent and slaveowner in Missouri. As a boy he had 
served in the ranks in the Mexican War, had an ad- 
venturous career on the Pacific Coast, had gone back 
to Missouri to achieve prominence at the bar, and 
as early as 1848 had come to the front as the un- 
flinching advocate of Emancipation and the conver- 
sion of Missouri into a Free State. Against his 
perfect panoply of courage and resource all the 
lances of the Slaveowners were hurled in vain. Their 
violence recoiled before him, their orators were no 
match for him upon the stump, and their leaders not 
his equal in party management. In 1852 he was 
iilected to the Missouri Legislature as a Free Soiler, 



\ 



20 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

was re-elected in 1854, and in 1856 to Congress. 
His value to the Union was immeasurable, for he 
was a leader around whom the Union men could 
rally with the utmost confidence that he would never 
weaken, never resort to devious ways, and never 
blunder. As a Southerner of the best ancestry, he 
was not open to the charge of being a "Yankee Abo- 
litionist," which had so much effect upon the South- 
ern people of his State. 

A very dangerous element was composed of a num- 
ber of leaders who belonged to the Pro-Slavery 
wing, but desiring to be elected to offices, masked 
their designs under the cover of the Douglas De- 
mocracy. The most important of these was Clai- 
borne F. Jackson, a politician of moderate abilities 
and only tolerable courage, but of great partisan 
activity. He professed to be a Douglas Democrat, 
and as such was elected Governor at the State elec- 
tion. Born in Kentucky 54 years before, he had re- 
sided in Missouri since 1822. A Captain in the 
Black Hawk War, his service had been as uneventful 
and brief as that of Abraham Lincoln, who was two 
years his junior, and he was one of the Pro-Slavery 
clique who had hounded the great Thomas H. Ben- 
ton out of politics on account of his mild Free Soil- 
ism. In person he was tall, erect, with something 
of dignity in his bearing. He essayed to be an ora- 
tor, had much reputation as such, but his speeches 
developed little depth of thought or anything 
beyond the customary phrases which were the stock 
in trade of all the orators of his class south of Mason 
and Dixon's line. 

The fermentation period culminated in the Presi- 



A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE. 21 

dential campaign of 1860, the hottest political battle 
this country had ever known. 

The intensity of the interest felt in Missouri was 
shown by the bigness of the vote, which aggregated 
165,618. As the population was but 1,182,012, of 
which 114,965 were slaves, it will be seen that sub- 
stantially every white man went to the polls. 

The newly-formed Republican Party, mostly con- 
fined to the radical Germ.ans of St. Louis, cast 17,028 
votes for Abraham Lincoln. 

The Slaveowners and their henchmen — "Southern 
Rights Democrats" — cast 31,317 votes for John C. 
Breckinridge. 

The "Regular Democrats" polled 58,801 votes for 
Stephen A. Douglas and "Squatter Sovereignty." 

The remains of the "Old Line Whigs," and a host 
of other men who did not want to be Democrats and 
would not be Republicans, cast 58,372 votes for John 
Bell, the "Constitutional Union" candidate. 

Thus it will be seen that out of every 165 men 
who went to the polls 17 were quite positive that the 
extension of Slavery must cease; 31 were equally 
positive that Slavery should be extended or the 
Union dissolved; 59 favored "Squatter Sovereign- 
ty," or local option in the Territories in regard to 
Slavery; 58 thought that "all this fuss about the 
nigger was absurd, criminal, and dangerous. It 
ought to be stopped at once by suppressing, if nec- 
essary, by hanging, the extremists on both sides, and 
letting things go on just as they have been." 

Thus so great a proportion as 117 out of the total 
of 165 — nearly five-sevenths of the whole — professed 



22 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

strong hostility to the views of the "extremists, both 
North and South." 

The time was at hand, however, when they must 
make their election as to which of these opposite 
poles of thought and action they would drift. They 
could no longer hold aloof, suggesting mild political 
placeboes, lamenting alike the wickedness of the 
Northern Abolitionists and the madness of the 
Southern Nullifiers, and expressing a patriotic de- 
sire to hang selected crowds of each on the same 
trees. 

South Carolina had promptly responded to the 
election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the 
United States by passing an Ordinance of Secession, 
and seizing all the United States forts, arsenals and 
other places, except Fort Sumter, within her limits. 

The rest of the Cotton States were hastening to 
follow her example. 

To the 117 "Middle-of-the-Road" voters out of 
every total of 165 it was therefore necessary to 
choose whether they would approve of the with- 
drawal of States and seizures of forts, and become 
Secessionists, or whether they would disapprove of 
this and ally themselves with the much-contemned 
Black Republicans. 

It was the old, old vital question, asked so many 
times of neutrals with the sword at their throats : 

"Under which King, Bezonian? Speak, or die." 



CHAPTER II. 




liBiG.-CjEN. D. M. Frost, 
C. S. A. 



HE storm-clouds gathered 
with cyclonic swiftness. 
South Carolina seceded Dec. 
20, 1860, and sent a Commis- 
sion to Washington to nego- 
tiate for the delivery of all the 
forts, arsenals, magazines, 
lighthouses, and other Nation- 
al property within her boun- 
daries, organizing in the 
meanwhile to seize them. 
Her Senators and Representatives formally with- 
drew from Congress; the Judges and other Federal 
officials solemnly resigned their places; and Maj. 
Robert Anderson, recognizing the impossibility of 
defending the decrepit Fort Moultrie against assault, 
transferred his garrison to Fort Sumter. 

President Buchanan announced the fatal doctrine 
that while no State had the right to secede, the Con- 
stitution gave no power to coerce a State which had 
withdrawn, or was attempting to withdraw from 
the Union. 

Mississippi seceded Jan. 9, 1861 ; Florida, Jan. 10 ; 
Alabama, Jan. 11; Georgia, Jan. 19; Louisiana, Jan. 
26; and Texas, Feb. 1; — all the Cotton States pre- 
cipitately following South Carolina's example. 



23 



24 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Each made haste — before or after Secession — to 
seize all the United States forts and property within 
her borders. 

In the midst of this political cataclysm the Legis- 
lature of Missouri met on the last day of 1860. 

The Senate consisted of 25 Democrats, seven 
Unionists, and one Republican ; the House of 85 
Democrats, 35 Unionists, and 12 Republicans. 

The retiring Governor — Robert M. Stewart — sent 
in his final message Jan. 3, and the same day his 
successor — Claiborne F. Jackson — was inaugurated, 
and delivered his address. Gov. Stewart was a typ- 
ical Northern Democrat, born in New York, but long 
a resident of Missouri. He was a strong Douglas 
m^an, and believed that the Southern people had the 
Constitutional right to take their slaves into the 
Territories and hold them there, and that this right 
ought to be assured them. He had never pretended 
to be in love v/ith Slavery, but he believed that the 
Constitution and laws granted full protection to the 
Institution. He denied the right of Secession, par- 
ticularly as to Missouri, which had been bought with 
the m.oney of the whole country. In his final mes- 
sage he did not hesitate to clearly set this forth, and 
to denounce South Carolina as having acted with 
consummate folly. He recognized the Union as the 
source of innumerable blessings, and would preserve 
it to the last. He said : 

As matters are at present Missouri will stand by her lot, 
and hold to the Union as long as it is worth an effort to pre- 
serve it. So long as there is hope of success she will seek for 
justice within the Union. She cannot be frightened from her 
propriety by the past unfriendly legislation of the North, nor 
be dragooned into secession by the extreme South. If those 
who should be our friends and allies undertake to render our 
property worthless by a system of prohibitory laws, or by re- 




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future date. 



24 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Each made haste — before or after Secession — to 
seize all the United States forts and property within 
her borders. 

In the midst of this political cataclysm the Legis- 
lature of Missouri met on the last day of 1860. 

The Senate consisted of 25 Democrats, seven 
Unionists, and one Republican ; the House of 85 
Democrats, 35 Unionists, and 12 Republicans. 

The retiring Governor — Robert M. Stewart — sent 
in his final message Jan. 3, and the same day his 
successor — Claiborne F. Jackson — was inaugurated, 
and delivered his address. Gov. Stewart was a typ- 
ical Northern Democrat, born in New York, but long 
a resident of Missouri. He was a strong Douglas 
man, and believed that the Southern people had the 
Constitutional right to take their slaves into the 
Territories and hold them there, and that this right 
ought to be assured them. He had never pretended 
to be in love v/ith Slavery, but he believed that the 
Constitution and laws granted full protection to the 
Institution. He denied the right of Secession, par- 
ticularly as to Missouri, which had been bought with 
the money of the whole country. In his final mes- 
sage he did not hesitate to clearly set this forth, and 
to denounce South Carolina as having acted with 
consummate folly. He recognized the Union as the 
source of innumerable blessings, and would preserve 
it to the last. He said : 

As matters are at present Missouri will stand by her lot, 
and hold to the Union as long as it is worth an effort to pre- 
serve it. So long- as there is hope of success she will seek for 
justice within the Union. She cannot be frightened from her 
propriety by the past unfriendly legislation of the North, nor 
be dragooned into secession by the extreme South. If those 
who should be our friends and allies undertake to render our 
property worthless by a system of prohibitory laws, or by re- 



THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER. 25 

opening- the slave trade in opposition to tlie moral sense of 
the civilized world, and at the same time reduce us to the 
position of an humble sentinel to watch over and protect their 
interests, receiving- all the blows and none of the benefits, 
Missouri will hesitate long before sanctioning such an ar- 
rangement. She will rather take the high position of armed 
neutrality. She is able to take care of herself, and will be 
neither forced nor flattered, driven nor coaxed, into a course 
of action that must end in her own destruction. 

The inaugural address of the new Governor was, 
under a thin vail of professed love for the Union, 
a bitter Secession appeal. He said that the destiny 
of the Siaveholding States was one and the same; 
that what injured one necessarily hurt all ; that sep- 
arate action meant certain defeat by the insolent 
North, which was alone and wholly responsible for 
the present deplorable conditions. He applauded 
the "gallantry" of South Carolina, urged that she 
be not condemned for "precipitancy," and said sig- 
nificantly : "If South Carolina has acted hastily, let 
not her error lead to the more fatal one — an attempt 
at coercion." 

With reference to the Republican Party and the 
future policy of Missouri, he said: 

The prominent characteristic of this party * * * js 
that it is purely sectional in its locality and its principles. 
The only principle inscribed upon its banner is Hostility to 
Slavery; — its object not merely to confine Slavery within its 
present limits; not merely to exclude it from the Territories, 
and prevent the formation and admission of any Siaveholding 
States; not merely to abolish it in the District of Columbia, 
and interdict its passage from one State to another; but to 
strike down its existence everywhere; to sap its foundation in 
public sentiment; to annoy and harass, and gradually destroy 
its vitality, by every means, direct or indirect, physical and 
moral, wiiich human ingenuity can devise. The triumph of 
such an organization is not the victory of a political party, 
but the domination of a Section. It proclaim.s in significant 
tones the destruction of that equality among the States which 
is the vital cement for our Federal Union. It places 15 of the 
33 States in the position of humble recipients of the bounty, 
or sullen submissionists to the power of a Government which 
they had no voice in creating, and in whose councils they do 
not participate. 



26 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

It cannot, then, be a matter of surprise to any — victors or 
vanquished — that these 15 States, with a pecuniary interest at 
stake reaching tlie enormous sum of $3,500,000,000 should be 
aroused and excited at tlie advent of such a party to power. 

Would it not rather be an instance of unprecedented blind- 
ness and fatuity, if the people and Governments of these 15 
Slaveholding- States were, under such circumstances, to mani- 
fest quiet indifference, and to make no effort to avoid the de- 
struction which awaited them? 

The meeting of the Legislature naturally brought 
to the State Capital at Jefferson City all of the pow- 
erful coterie which was self -charged with the work 
of taking Missouri into the" road whither South Car- 
olina was leading the Cotton States. This coterie 
included the Judges of the Supreme Court and all 
the State officials, and the United States Senators 
and Representatives. Ever since the Anti-Benton 
faction had accomplished the great Senator's defeat, 
the shibboleth for admission into the higher circles 
of Missouri Democracy had been "Southern Rights." 
As the mass of the Middle Class Democrats favored 
Senator Douglas's plan of letting the settlers in each 
Territory decide for themselves whether they would 
have Slavery, it was highly politic for every candi- 
date to claim that he was a Douglas Democrat. It 
must be known to the inner ring, however, that he 
was at heart fully in accord with the views of the 
extreme Pro-Slavery men, and ready at the word 
to join the Secessionists. So thorough was this pre- 
liminary organization, that while in Missouri tens 
of thousands of professed Union men went over to 
Secession when the stress came, there was no in- 
stance of an avowed Pro-Slavery man cleaving to 
the side of the Union. 

Next to Gov. Jackson, — surpassing him in intel- 
lectual acuteness and fertile energy, — was Lieut.- 



THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER. 27 

Gov. Thos. C. Reynolds, then in his 40th year, a 
short, full-bodied man, with jet-black hair and eyes 
shaded by gold-rimmed glasses. He boasted of be- 
ing born of Virginia parents in South Carolina, but 
some of the Germans claimed to know that his right 
name was Reinhold, and that he was a Jew born in 
Prague, the Capital of Bohemia, and brought to this 
country when a child. He was a man of more than 
ordinary ability, and had accomplishments quite un- 
usual in that day. 

He spoke French, German and Spanish fluently, 
wrote profusely and with considerable force, and 
prided himself on being a diplomat. He had seen 
some service as Secretary of Legation and Charge 
d' Affaires at Madrid, He had been elected as a 
Douglas Democrat, but was an outspoken Secession- 
ist, and as he was ex-officio President of the Senate, 
he had much power in forming committees and 
shaping legislation. He clung to the wrecked rebel 
ship of state to the last, went with Gov. Jackson and 
the rest when they were driven out of the State, as- 
sumed the Governorship when Jackson — worn out 
by the terrible strains and vicissitudes — died at Lit- 
tle Rock, Ark., in December, 1862 — and v/as last 
heard from near the end of the war, with the shat- 
tered and melancholy remnants of the Missouri State 
Government and troops, on the banks of the Rio 
Grande, writing furious diatribes against Gen. Ster- 
ling Price, the admired leader of the Missouri Con- 
federates. 

Another man of great influence in the State was 
United States Senator James S. Green, a Virginian 
by birth, but who had been a resident of Missouri 



28 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

for about a quarter of a century. He was a lawyer 
of fine talents, and in the Senate ranked as a de- 
bater with Douglas, Seward, Chase, Toombs, Wig- 
fall, Fessenden, Wade, and others of that class. In 
Missouri he was one of the leaders of the Ultra- 
Slavery ''Softs" against Thos. H. Benton; had been 
Minister to New Granada, and Representative in 
Congress, and in the Senate belonged to the Jeffer- 
son Davis-Toombs-Wigfall cabal, which was plan- 
ning the disruption of the Union. His term expir- 
ing March 3, 1861, he was now in Jefferson City 
for the rather irreconcilable purposes of securing his 
re-election to the United States Senate and of ful- 
filling his pledge to his Secessionist colleagues to 
carry Missouri out of the Union. 

His colleague — Senator Trusten Polk — a strong, 
kindly, graceful man — was there to assist him in 
both purposes. Born in Delaware, he had been a 
resident of Missouri since 1835, elected Governor of 
the State in 1856, resigned to accept Benton's seat 
in the Senate, from which he was to be expelled in 
1862 for disloyalty, and to follow the failing fortunes 
of the Missouri Confederates to the banks of the Rio 
Grande. 

The problem of absorbing intensity for the Seces- 
sion leaders — Messrs. Jackson, Reynolds, Green, 
Polk and others — was to win over, entrap or con- 
strain a sufficient number of the 117 "Doubtful" 
voters out of every 165, to give them a working ma- 
jority in the State. There was fiery zeal enough 
and to spare on the Secession side ; what was needed 
was skillful management to convince the Union-lov- 
ing peace-loving majority that the Northern "Abo- 



THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER. 



29 



litionists," flushed with victory, meant unheard-of 
wrongs and insults to the South ; that Missouri must 
put herself in shape to protect her borders, call a halt 
on the insolent North, and in connection with the 
other Border States be the arbiter between the con- 
tending sections, and in the last resort ally herself 
with the other Slave States for mutual protection. 




The Harney Mansion. 



A man to be reckoned with in those days was the 
Commander of the Department of the West, which 
included all that immense territory stretching from 
the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, except 
Texas, New Mexico, and Utah. This man was the 
embodiment of the Regular Army as it was devel- 
oped after the War of 1812. At this time that Army 
was a very small one — two regiments of dragoons, 
two of cavalry, one of mounted riflemen, four of ar- 
tillery, and 10 of infantry, making, with engineers, 



30 THE STRUGGLE FOK MISSOURI. 

ordnance and staff, a total of only 12,698 officers and 
men — but its personnel and discipline were unsur- 
passed in the world. Among its 1,040 commis- 
sioned officers there was no finer soldier than Wil- 
liam Selby Harney. A better Colonel no army 
ever had. A Colonel, mind you — not a General; 
there is a wide difference between the two, 
as we found out during the war. There are 
very many Americans — every little community has 
at least one — who, given a regiment, where every 
man is within reach of his eye and voice, will dis- 
cipline it, provide for it, rule it, and fight it in the 
very best fashion. Give him some piece of work to 
do, of which he can see the beginning and the end, 
and he will make the regiment do every pound of 
which it is capable. But put in command of a bri- 
gade, anything beyond voice and eye, set to a task 
outreaching his visual horizon, he becomes obviously 
unequal to the higher range of duty. 

A form of commanding hight, physique equal to 
any test of activity or endurance, a natural leader 
of men through superiority of courage and ability, 
William Selby Harney had for 43 years made an un- 
surpassed record as a commander of soldiers. He 
had served in the everglades of Florida, on the 
boundless plains west of the Mississippi, and in 
Mexico, during the brilliantly spectacular war which 
ended with our "reveling in the Halls of the Monte- 
zumas." He it was, who, eager for his country's 
honor and advancement, had, while the diplomats 
were disputing with Great Britain, pounced down 
upon and seized the debatable island of San Juan in 
Vancouver waters. For this he was recalled, but 



THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER. 31 

the island remained American territory. He was 
soon assigned to the Department of the West, with 
headquarters at St. Louis. 

He had been for 12 years the Colonel of the crack 
2d U. S. Dragoons, and for three years one of the 
three Brigadier-Generals in the Regular Army, his 
only seniors being Ma j. -Gen. and Brevet Lieut.-Gen. 
Winfield Scott, the General-in-Chief ; Brig.-Gen. John 
E. Wool, commanding the Department of the East; 
and Brig.-Gen. David E. Twiggs, commanding the 
Department of Texas. 

Gen. Harney's assignment, while a recognition of 
his eminent fitness for ruling the territory over 
which he had campaigned for more than a quarter 
of a century, was highly gratifying to him inasmuch 
as he was married to a wealthy St. Louis woman, 
and in that city he had an abundance of the luxur- 
ious social enjoyment so dear to the heart of the 
old warrior. A Southerner by birth and education, 
a large Slave-owner, with all his interests in the 
South, and at all times seemingly in full sympathy 
with the Southern spirit that dominated the Army, 
the Secessionists sanguinely expected that he would 
prove as pliant to their proposals as had Gen. 
Twiggs, the Commander of the Department of 
Texas. We shall see how soldierly instincts and 
training measurably disappointed them. 

To return to the Missouri Legislature : Lieut.-Gov. 
Reynolds could, as a lieutenant always can, be more 
outspoken and radical than his chief, who labored 
under responsibility. On the day the Legislature 
met he published an important letter which thor- 
oughly indicates the feeling of the Secessionists at 



32 . THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

that period. He urged the General Assembly to 
promptly express the determination of Missouri to 
resist every attempt by the Federal Government to 
coerce any State to remain in the Union, or to use 
force in any way to collect revenues or execute the 
laws in any seceding State. He denounced Presi- 
dent Buchanan's distinction between "coercing a 
State" and "compelling the citizens of the State to 
obey the laws of the United States" as a "transpar- 
ent sophistry." "To levy tribute, molest commerce, 
or hold fortresses, are as much acts of war as to 
bombard a city." He also urged immediate and 
thorough organization of the militia and other prep- 
arations for "putting the State in complete condition 
for defense." If the present controversy could not 
be adjusted before March 4, the State of Missouri 
"should not permit Mr. Lincoln to exercise any act of 
Government" within her borders. 

This was certainly distinctly defiant, and shrewdly 
calculated to gather about the new administration 
all the wavering men who could be attracted by in- 
flammatory appeals to their prejudices against the 
North, to their State pride, and to their hopes of 
making Missouri the arbiter in the dispute. 

Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds followed up his pronuncia- 
mento by carefully organizing the Senate commit- 
tees with radical Secessionists at the head, and the 
immediate introduction of bills ably contrived to 
put the control of the State in the hands of those 
who favored Secession. These committees promptly 
reported several bills. 

One provided for calling a State Convention, an 
effective device by which the other Southern States 




GOV. CLAIBORNE F. JACKSON 



THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER. 33 

had been dragged into Secession. Another provided 
for the organization of the Militia of the State, 
which would be done by officers reliable for Seces- 
sion, and the third was intended to extinguish re- 
sistance by taking away much of the police power 
of the Republican Mayor of St. Louis, who had at 
his back the radical Germans, organized into semi- 
military Vv^ide-Awake Clubs. All these bills seemed 
to be heartily approved all over the State, and the 
Southern Rights leaders Vv^ere exultant at their suc- 
cess. Apparently the 117 "Doubtfuls" were flock- 
ing over to them. 

It seemed for a few momentous days in the open- 
ing of 1861 that Missouri v/ould be inevitably swept 
into the tide of Secession, and even in St. Louis, the 
stronghold of Republicanism, a monster mass meet- 
ing, called and controlled by such afterwards-strong 
loyalists as Hamilton R. Gamble, later the Union 
Governor of the State, Nathaniel Paschall, James E. 
Yeatman, and Robert Campbell, unanimously passed 
resolutions declaring slave property to be held as a 
Constitutional right v/hich the Government should 
secure, and if it did not, Missouri "would join with 
her sister States and share their duties and dan- 
gers," and that the Government should not attempt 
to coerce the seceding States. This word "coerce" 
had an extraordinarily ugly sound to all ears, and 
was a potent enchantment in taking many of the 
professedly Union men into the ranks of the rebel- 
lion. Even Horace Greeley recoiled from "a Union 
held together by bayonets." 

The bill "to call a Convention to consider the re- 
lations of the State of Missouri to the United States, 



34 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

and to adopt measures for vindicating the sovereign^ 
ty of the State, and the protection of her institu- 
tions," was promptly reported back to both Houses 
on the 9th of January, and as promptly passed by 
them, with only two adverse votes in the Senate and 
18 in the House. Of the latter 11 were from St. 
Louis. 

The Secessionists proceeded to a joyful celebration 
of this new triumph. They hastened at once to an- 
other step to ally Missouri with the South. A Com- 
missioner arrived from the State of Mississippi to 
ask the co-operation of Missouri in measures of 
common defense and safety. The Governor received 
him with the distinction accredited an Embassador 
from a foreign power, and recommended the Leg- 
islature to do likewise. The serviceable Lieut.-Gov. 
Reynolds carried out this idea by putting through a 
joint resolution to receive the Commissioner in the 
House Chamber, vv^ith both bodies, the Governor and 
other chief officers of the State, and the Judges of 
the Supreme Court in attendance, and with every 
other honor. He dictated that upon the announce- 
ment of the entrance of the Commissioner, the whole 
body should respectfully rise. The radical Union 
men from St. Louis resisted this vehemently, and did 
not hesitate to apply the ugly word '"traitor" to the 
Commissioner, and those who were aiding and abet- 
ting him. 

The Commissioner made a long address, in which 
he said that the Union had been dissolved, could 
never be reconstructed; that war was inevitable, 
and the people of Mississippi earnestly invited those 
of Missouri to unite with their kindred for common 



THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER. 35 

defense and safety. A few days later the Legisla- 
ture adopted a resolution against coercion, and an- 
other introduced by George Graham Vest, of the 
Committee on Federal Relations, afterwards Sena- 
tor in the Confederate House from Missouri, and for 
24 years representing Missouri in the Senate of the 
United States. This resolution declared that so "ab- 
horrent was the doctrine of coercion, that any at- 
tempt at such would result in the people of Missouri 
rallying on the side of their Southern brethren to 
resist to the last extremity." There was only one 
vote against this in the Senate, and but 14 in the 
House. 

The eager young Secessionists were impatient to 
emulate their brethren farther south, and strike a 
definite blow — seize something that would wreck the 
sovereignty of the United States. Forts there were 
none. In the historic old Jefferson Barracks, below 
St. Louis, there were only a small squad of raw re- 
cruits, and a few officers, mostly of Southern pro- 
clivities, whom it would be cruel to turn out of house 
and home while they were waiting "for their States 
to go out." 

There were but two Arsenals in the State ; a small 
affair at Liberty, in the northwest, near the Missouri 
River, which contained several hundred muskets, a 
dozen cannon, and a considerable quantity of pow- 
der. The other was the great Arsenal at St. Louis, 
one of the most important in the country. It cov- 
ered 56 acres of ground, fronting on the Mississippi 
River, was inclosed by a high stone wall on all sides 
but that of the river, and had within it four massive 
stone buildings standing in a rectangle. In these 



36 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

were stored 60,000 stands of arms, mostly Enfield 
and Springfield rifles, 1,500,000 cartridges, 90,000 
pounds of powder, a number of field pieces and siege 
guns, and a great quantity of munitions of various 
kinds. There were also machinery and appliances 
of great value. The Arsenal was situated on rather 
low ground, and was commanded from hills near by. 
At the beginning of 1861 the only persons in it were 
some staff oflEicers, with their servants and orderlies, 
and the unarmed workmen. The officer in command 
was Maj. Wm. Haywood Bell, a North Carolinian, 
graduate of West Point, and Ordnance Officer, but 
who had spent nearly the v/hole of his 40 years' ser- 
vice in Bureau work, attending meanwhile so provi- 
dently to his own affairs that he was quite a wealthy 
man, with most of his investments in St. Louis. 

Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson had as his military ad- 
viser and executant Maj .-Gen. Daniel M. Frost, a 
New Yorker by birth and a graduate of West Point. 
He had served awhile in the Mexican War, where 
he received a brevet as First Lieutenant for gallant- 
ry at Cerro Gordo, and then became Quartermaster 
of his regiment. He had been sent to Europe as a 
student of the military art there, but resigned in 
1853, to take charge of a planing mill and carpentry 
work in St. Louis. He subsequently became a farm- 
er, was elected to the Missouri Senate, entered the 
Missouri Militia, rose to be Brigadier-General, and 
was sanguinely expected to become for Missouri 
what Lee and Jos. E. Johnston were for Virginia, 
Beauregard for South Carolina, and Braxton Bragg 
for Louisiana. He was really a good deal of a sol- 
dier, v/ith foresight and initiative force, and had the 



THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER. 37 

Governor had the courage to follow his bold counsels, 
the course of events might have been different. As 
early as Jan. 8 he visited the Arsenal, and had an 
interview with its commandant, which he reported 
to the Governor as entirely satisfactory. Maj. Bell 
was wholly in sympathy with the South, and re- 
garded the Arsenal as being virtually Missouri's 
property when she should choose to demand it. His 
honor as a soldier would compel him to resist any 
attack from an irresponsible mob, but a summons 
from the sovereign State of Missouri would meet 
with the respectful obedience to which it was en- 
titled. It was therefore decided that this was the 
best shape in which to leave matters. Maj. Bell 
would hold the Arsenal in trust against both the 
radical St. Louis Germans and over-zealous Seces- 
sionists, who wanted to seize it and arm their par- 
ticular followers. When Gen. Frost had organized 
the Missouri Militia to his satisfaction, he would 
march into the Arsenal, and under the plea of pro- 
tecting it from mobs, use its contents to thoroughly 
arm and equip his Militia, which would thus be put 
in very much better shape than the troops of any 
other State. 

Meanwhile, Gen. Frost recommended that as little 
as possible be said about the Arsenal, in order to 
avoid attracting attention to it. 

All the sam.e, the Arsenal was intently watched by 
both sides, and for the next four months it was the 
great stake for which they played, since its posses- 
sion would go far toward giving possession of the 
State. There were but 150,000 stands of arms in 
the rest of the South, while here were 60,000. 



38 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Even before South Carolina seceded the ardent 
young Secessionists of St. Louis had begun the or- 
ganization of "Minute Men" to "protect the State." 
Naturally, their first step in protecting the State 
would be to seize the Arsenal, to prevent its arms 
being used to "coerce the people." Their headquar- 
ters were in the Berthold House, a fine residence at 
the corner of Fifth and Pine streets, over which 
floated the Secession flag. 

Into these companies went numbers of young men 
from the best families of the South, who had come 
to St. Louis to take advantage of business opportuni- 
ties, and young Irishmen, of whom there were many 
thousands in the city, and who, having in their 
blood an antipathy to "the Dutch" dating from Wil- 
liam of Orange's days, were skillfully wrought upon 
by the assertion that the "infidel, Sabbath-breaking, 
beer-drinking Dutch who had invaded St. Louis" 
vv^ere of the same breed as those who harried Ireland 
and inflicted innumerable persecutions in 1689. Very 
effective in this was one Brock Champion, a big- 
hearted, big-bodied young Irishman, of much influ- 
ence among his countrymen, who played little 
part, however, in the war which ensued. More con- 
spicuous later was Basil Wilson Duke, a bright Ken- 
tucky lawyer, 25 years old, who was Captain of one 
of the companies, and afterwards became the sec- 
ond in command and an inspiration to John H. Mor- 
gan, the great raider. The Captain of another com- 
pany was Colton Greene, a South Carolinian, a year 
or two younger than Duke, a merchant, a man of 
delicate physique and cultivated mind, but of great 
courage and constancy of purpose. 



THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER. 39 

Everywhere in the State began a systematic per- 
secution of the Unconditional Union men and the 
bullying of the Conditional Union men. Secession 
flags in numbers floated from buildings in St. Louis, 
Rolla, Lexington, Jefferson City, Kansas City, and 
elsewhere. Union meetings were disturbed and 
broken up in all the larger towns, the Star Spangled 
Banner torn down and trampled upon, and the bor- 
ders of Kansas and Iowa were thronged with Union 
refugees telling how they had been robbed, mal- 
treated, and threatened with death, their stock 
killed, their houses and crops burned by the "White 
Trash" which the Slave Power had turned loose 
upon them. 

When Maj. Bell had talked of "irresponsible 
mobs," he may have thought of premature young 
fire-eaters like Duke, Greene, and Champion, eager 
for the distinction of capturing the Arsenal, cov- 
etous of distributing its arms to their followers. 
Most likely, however, he had in mind forays from 
Illinois, or by the radical Germans of St. Louis, who 
were ill disposed toward seeing their enemies 
equipped from its stores. 

Gen. Frost had the Germans in mind as early as 
Jan. 8, probably immediately following his inter- 
view with Maj. Bell, for he sent out a secret circular 
to his trusted subordinates instructing them that 
"upon the bells of the churches sounding a continu- 
ous peal, interrupted by a pause of five minutes, they 
should assemble Avith their men in their armories, 
and there await further orders." One of these cir- 
culars fell into the hands of a good Union man, who 
immediately took it to Frank P. Blair. It was found 



40 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

that it was the Catholic church bells that were relied 
upon to do the ringing, implying that the enthusias- 
tic, reckless Irishmen were to take the initiative. 
The Archbishop of St. Louis was immediately seen, 
to prohibit the bells of the churches being used as 
a tocsin to light the flames of civil war. Mr. Blair 
sent the circular with other information to Gen. 
Scott, with an urgent request that an officer of 
sounder loyalty supersede Maj. Bell, and that some 
troops be sent to Jefferson Barracks against an 
emergency. Mr. Montgomery Blair, brother of F. 
P. Blair, Jr., and soon to be Postmaster-General, 
Gov. Yates, of Illinois, and President-elect Lincoln 
supported this request. A fortnight later Maj. Bell 
was relieved, and assigned to duty in the East. 

A gallant one-armed Irish First Lieutenant of the 
2d U. S., one Thomas W. Sw^eeny, of whom we shall 
hear more later, was ordered to Jefferson Barracks, 
where it was supposed his influence with his coun- 
trymen might offset that of Mr. Champion. A small 
squad of Regulars was sent him from Newport Bar- 
racks. 

Maj. Bell foreseeing that the Army was to be no 
longer a place for a quiet gentleman with business 
tastes, resigned his commission, to remain with his 
well-placed investments in St. Louis. 

All this disturbed the Secessionists. They saw that 
the Governm.ent had an eye on the important Ar- 
senal, and did not intend to give it up as tamely as 
it had other places in the South. The arrival of the 
Regulars was made the basis of inflam.matory ap- 
peals that the Government was trying to "overawe 
and coerce the people." Two days later this "intimi- 



THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER. 41 

dation" became flagrant. Isaac H. Sturgeon, As- 
sistant United States Treasurer at St. Louis, a Ken- 
tuckian and Secessionist, had for reasons of his own 
reported to President Buchanan that he was con- 
cerned about the safety of $400,000 in gold in his 
vaults. The President handed the letter to Gen. 
Scott, who sent an order to Jefferson Barracks which 
resulted in a Lieutenant with 40 men being sent to 
the Post OfRce Building to protect the removal of 
the gold. The city was thrown into the greatest 
excitement as the troops marched through the 
streets, the papers issued extras, and it required all 
the efforts of the officials and the leaders on both 
sides to preserve the peace. 

Gov. Claiborne Jackson took advantage of the oc- 
casion to send a message to the Legislature, in which 
he said that this was an "act insulting to the dignity 
and patriotism of the people." 

The gold having been removed. Gen. Harney or- 
dered the troops back to the Arsenal, and quiet was 
restored. 

Maj. Peter B. Hagner, of the District of Columbia, 
who graduated from West Point in 1832, and had 
distinguished himself in the Mexican War, succeeded 
Maj. Bell in the command of the Arsenal. His sym- 
pathies were strongly with the South, but not so 
strongly as to overmaster his desire to retain his 
commission and its emoluments. He was willing to 
go any length in serving the Secessionists that did 
not involve his dismissal from the Army. He had 
two brothers in the service, and all three held on to 
their commissions until forced from their hands by 
the grim grasp of death. 



42 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Meanwhile, Lieiit.-Gov. Reynolds was pushing the 
Legislative work to carry Missouri out of the Union. 
The acts which proved so successful in the other 
Southern States in binding the people hand and 
foot and dragging them over to the rebellion 
were closely imitated. One of these was the cel- 
ebrated "Military Bill" introduced in the Senate, Jan. 
5, 1861. This put every m,an of military age in the 
State into the Militia, and at the disposal of the Gov- 
ernor, who was given $150,000 outright to enable 
him to carry out his plans. It made everybody owe 
paramount allegiance to the State, and prescribed se- 
vere penalties, including even death, to be inflicted 
by drum-head court martial for "treason" to the 
State — for even the utterance of disrespectful words 
against the Governor or Legislature. This went a 
little too far for many of the members, and by ob- 
stinate fighting the passage of the bill was postponed 
from time to time and at last defeated. 

Another bill was generally understood as one to 
stamp out Republicanism in St. Louis, but officially 
designated as "An Act to amend an act for the sup- 
pression of riot in St. Louis City and County." This 
took out of the hands of the Republican Sheriff and 
Mayor most of their peace-preserving powers, which 
were given to a Board to be appointed by the Gov- 
ernor, thereby to tie their hands when the time came 
for taking the Arsenal. One of the Governor's Po- 
lice Commissioners was Basil Duke, the leader of the 
"Minute-Men." 

Though they had none of the noisy aggressiveness 
of the Secessionists, the leaders of the Unionists, 
during those bitterly intense Winter days, were no 



THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER. 43 

less able, courageous, and earnest. Blair had a mas- 
terful courage and determination not equalled by any 
man opposed to him. He was one of those men of 
mighty purpose who set their faces toward an object 
with the calm resolution to die rather than fail. 
Against the hardened steel of his relentless will the 
softer iron of such thrasonic Secessionists as Gov. 
Jackson, Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds, United States Sena- 
tors James S. Green and Trusten Polk, Gen. Frost 
and lesser leaders, clashed without producing a dent. 

Blair had skill and tact equal to his courage. He 
foresaw every movement of his antagonists and met 
it with a prompt countermove. To their inflamma- 
tory rhetoric he opposed clear comm.on sense, loyalty 
and wise judgment as to the future. When occasion 
demanded, he did not hesitate to publicly express the 
hope "that every traitor among them would be made 
to test the strength of Missouri hemp." He was 
swift to subordinate himself and "the Cause," when 
anything could be gained. There were many promi- 
nent men who wanted to save the Union, but would 
deny to Frank Blair the credit of it. He unhesitat- 
ingly gave them the highest places, and took the' 
subordinate one for himself. 'There were tens of 
thousands of Whigs and Democrats who loved the 
Union, but shuddered at the thought of becoming 
Black Republicans. He abolished the Republican 
Party, that they might form a Union Party, the sole 
principle of which should be support of the Govern- 
ment. 

Next to Blair was the famous "Committee of Safe- 
ty," which did such high work for the Union during 



44 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

those fermenting days. These and their birthplaces 
were : 

0. D. Filley, New England. 

John How, Pennsylvania. 

Samuel T. Glover, Kentucky. 

James 0. Broadhead, Virginia. 

J. J. Witzig, Germany. 

These self-denying, self-sacrificing patriots 
worked together with Blair in perfect harmony and 
with the utmost skill. They were more than a match 
for their Secession opponents in organization and 
management, and lost very fev/ points in the great 
game that was played throughout the Winter, with 
the possession of the City, the State, and the Arsenal 
for the main prizes. 

The Committee of Safety had its Home Guards to 
offset the Minute Men, Where there were hundreds 
of these latter drilling more or less openly, with 
much fifing and drumming and flaunting of Seces- 
sion flags, there were thousands of Home Guards 
meeting and training with greatest secresy in old 
foundries, brev/eries, and halls, with pickets out to 
prevent surprise, sawdust on the floors to drown 
the sound of their feet, and blankets at the windows 
to arrest the light and the words of command. The 
drill hall was only approached at night, and singly 
or by twos or threes, to avoid attracting attention. 
Most of these Home Guards were Germans, and a 
large proportion had had military training in Eu- 
rope. The great problem with them, as with the Min- 
ute Men, was to get arms, and both sides watched the 
Arsenal with its 60,000 rifles and 1,500,000 cart- 
ridges with sharp covetousness. The Governor of 



THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER. 45 

Illinois loaned the Home Guards a few arms, but it 
was expected that these would be repaid with inter- 
est from the stores of the Arsenal. 

The appointment of Maj. Hagner to the comm.and 
of the Arsenal was satisfactory to the Secessionists, 
but there was naturally a good deal of interest as to 
the bias of Capt. Thomas W. Sweeny. One day a 
man presented himself at the west gate of the Ar- 
senal and asked to see Capt. Svv^eeny, Sweeny went 
to the gate and recognized an old acquaintance, St. 
George Croghan, the son of that Lieut. Croghan who 
had so brilliantly defended Fort Stephenson, -at 
Lower Sandusky, in the War of 1812, and who after- 
wards was for many years Inspector-General of the 
United States Army. Croghan's grandfather had 
been a gallant officer in the Revolution. It was a 
cold day, and Croghan wore a citizen's overcoat. 
On their way to the quarters, the guards properly 
saluted Sweeny as they passed. Said Croghan, 
"Sweeny, don't you think those sentinels ought to 
salute me — my rank is higher than yours?" at the 
same time throwing open his overcoat and revealing 
the uniform of a rebel field officer. 

"Not to such as that, by heavens!" responded 
Sweeny; and added: "If that is your business, you 
can have nothing to do with me. You had better not 
let my men see you with that thing on." 

Croghan assured him his business in calling was 
one of sincere friendship; but he would remark 
while on the subject, that Sweeny had better find it 
convenient to get out of there, and very soon, too. 

"Why?" asked Sweeny. 

Replied Croghan : "Because we intend to take it." 



46 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Sweeny in great excitement exclaimed: "Never! 
As sure as my name is Sweeny, the property in this 
place shall never fall into your hands. I'll blow it 
to hell first, and you know I am the man to do it." 

Nine months later this Croghan was to fall mor- 
tally wounded at the head of a cavalry regiment 
while attacking the Union troops near Fayetteville, 
W. Va., while Sweeny was to do gallant service in 
the Union army, rising to the rank of Brigadier- 
General of Volunteers, and command of a Division, 
and being retired in 1870 with the rank of Brigadier- 
General. 



Chapter hi. 

THE Secessionists v/ere in the meanwhile hard- 
ly making the headway in the Legislature 
that they had anticipated, in spite of the 
stimulating events in the extreme Southern States. 

A curious situation developed in the Legislature 
leading to the arrest for a while of Lieut.-Gov. Rey- 
nolds's plans for organizing the State for rebellion. 
The term of Senator James S. Green expired on the 
3d of March, and he was desirous of being his own 
successor. The first consideration was whether Mis- 
souri was likely to stay in the Union and have a Sen- 
ator. At the moment this seemed probable enough 
to warrant going on and electing a Senator, and the 
Pro-Slavery men made strenuous efforts to re-elect 
Mr. Green, but it was significant that he was deemed 
too ultra a Secessionist, and Waldo P. Johnson was 
elected in his stead. Among the many things in the 
war which turned out surprisingly different from 
what men had confidently expected was that Mr. 
Green took the selfish politician's view of the "in- 
gratitude" of those who refused to re-elect him, sul- 
lenly retired to private life, and did not raise his 
hand nor his voice for the South during the war, 
while Mr. Johnson, who was elected because he was 
a better Union man, soon resigned his seat in the 
United States Senate, entered the Confederate army, 
became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4tli Mo. (Confed- 
erate), and fought till the close of the war. 

i7 



48 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Jan. 18, after a prolonged debate, both Houses 
passed a bill to call a Convention "to consider the 
relations of Missouri to the United States." This 
was the successful device which had been used in 
carrying other States out of the Union, and despite 
the conservatism of the language of the act it was 
hoped that it would be successful in this instance. 
In the Senate there were only 26 votes against it, 
and in the House but 18, of whom 11 were from St. 
Louis. The Southern Rights men regarded this as 
a great triumph, however, and made much jubilation 
throughout the State. The election for members to 
the Convention was fixed for Feb. 18, and the Con- 
vention was to meet on the last day of the month. 
This act was followed by the adoption of a joint res- 
olution which expressed profound regret that the 
States of Nev/ York and Ohio had tendered men and 
money to the President for "the avowed purpose of 
coercing certain sovereign States of the South into 
obedience to the Federal Government," and declaring 
that the people of Missouri would rally to the side 
of their Southern brethren to resist the invaders 
and to the last extremity." Only 14 votes were cast 
against this resolution. 

The main interest nov/ centered upon the election 
of delegates to the Convention. New political lines 
ran among the people, dividing them into Secession- 
ists, "Conditional Union" men and "Unconditional 
Union" men. 

Blair's leadership was able to efface the Republi- 
can Party for the time being, and carry all of the 
members over to the Unconditional Unionists. The 




GEN. STERLING PRICE 



NATHANIEL LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 49 

result of the election was a blow to the Secessionists, 
not one of whose candidates was elected. 

In St. Louis the Unconditional Union candidates 
were elected by over 5,000 majority. 

The bitterly-disappointed Secessionists denounced 
the majority as "Submissionists," and threatened all 
manner of things. 

The election occurred on the same day that Jeffer- 
son Davis was inaugurated President of the South- 
ern Confederacy. 

When the State Convention met at Jefferson City, 
it was found that of its 99 members 53 were natives 
of either Virginia of Kentucky, and all but 17 had 
been born in Slave States. Only 13 were natives of 
the North, three were Germans, and one an Irish- 
man. A struggle at once ensued for the organiza- 
tion of the Convention, which resulted in a victory 
for the Union men, ex-Gov. Sterling Price being 
elected President by 75 votes, to 15 cast for Nathan- 
iel W. Watkins, a half-brother of Henry Clay, and a 
strenuous advocate of Southern Rights. As soon as 
the Convention completed its organization it ad- 
journed to St. Louis, to avoid the badgering of the 
pronounced Secessionists, who constituted the State 
Government, and the clamorous bullying of the 
crowd assembled in the State Capital to influence its 
action. 

On assembling at St. Louis the Convention imme- 
diately addressed itself to the duty for which it had 
assembled. Judge Hamilton R. Gamble, a Virginian, 
leader of the Unconditional Union men, and after- 
wards Governor of the State, as Chairman of the 
Committee on Federal Relations, made a long report, 



50 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

in which it was denied that the grievances com- 
plained of were sufficient to involve Missouri in re- 
bellion ; that in a military sense Misouri's union with 
the Southern Confederacy meant annihilation; that 
the true position of the State was to try to bring 
back her seceding sisters, and to this effect a Con- 
vention of all the States was recommended, to adopt 
the Crittenden Proposition. An attempt to amend 
this report by the declaration that if the Northern 
States refused to assent to the Crittenden Compro- 
mise Missouri would then side with her sister States 
of the South received only 23 votes, but among them 
was that of Sterling Price, who had begun to drift 
southward. 

The Convention adopted Gamble's report, and a 
few days afterward adjourned subject to call of the 
committee. 

The Secessionists were greatly discouraged by the 
result, and the Legislature also adjourned. Then 
came another fluctuation in public opinion. The 
great majority wanted peace. The attitude of the 
Governor and his faction, who seemed to look toward 
peace by putting Missouri in a state of defense to 
prevent the new Eepublican President from making 
war, appealed to many, and in the Spring elections 
the Unconditional Union men were defeated by a 
small majority, and St. Louis passed from their offi- 
cial control to that of the Conditional Union Men. 

While these events were occupying public atten- 
tion there occurred another, little noted at the time, 
but which was soon to be of controlling importance. 
Feb. 6 there marched up from the steamboat land- 
ing to the Arsenal a company of 80 Regular soldiers 



NATHANIEL LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 51 

of the 2d U. S., from Fort Riley, Kan., at the head 
of which was a Captain, under the average hight, 
and a well knit but rather slender frame. He had a 
long, narrow face, with full, high forehead, keen, 
deep-set blue eyes, and hair and whiskers almost 
red. His face was thoughtful but determined, his 
manner quick and nervous. He bore himself to- 
wards his men as an exact and rigid disciplinarian, 
mingled with thoughtful kindness for all who did 
their duty and tried their best. This was Capt. Na- 
thaniel Lyon, born in Connecticut, descended from 
old Puritan stock, with the blood of Cromwell's Iron- 
sides flowing in his veins. He was then 42 years 
old, and before another birthday was to fill the coun- 
try with his fame, and fall in battle — face to the 
front. He had graduated from West Point in 1841, 
the 11th in his class. That his intellectual abilities 
were of high order is shown by his standing in that 
class, of which Zealous B. Tower, an eminent engi- 
neer, and brevet Major-General, U. S. A., was the 
head, and Horatio G. Wright, who commanded the 
Sixth Corps during the last and greatest year of its 
history, was the second. 

Gen. John F. Reynolds, the superb commander of 
the First Corps and of the Right Wing of the Army 
of the Potomac, with which he brought on the battle 
of Gettysburg, where he was killed, graduated 26th 
in the class, and Gen. Don Carlos Buell, who organ- 
ized and commanded the Army of the Ohio, gradu- 
ated 32d. Gen. Robert Garnett, the first Confeder- 
ate General officer to fall in the struggle, — killed 
July 13, 1861, at Carrick's Ford, — was the 27th in 
the class. Julius P. Garesche, who graduated 16th 



52 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

in the class, became Chief of Staff to Gen. Rosecrans, 
and was killed at Stone River. 

Besides being thoroughly versed in all that related 
to his profession of arms, Capt. Lyon was well in- 
formed in history and general literature; was a de- 
\oted student of the Bible and Shakspere, and wrote 
well and forcibly. What was very rare among the 
officers of the old Army, he was a radical Abolition- 
ist, and believer in the National Sovereignty. He 
was so outspoken in these views as to render his po- 
sition quite unpleasant, where nearly every one was 
so antagonistic. A weaker-willed man would have 
been forced either out of the Army or into tacit ac- 
quiescence with the prevailing sentiment. 

Upon graduation he had been assigned to the 2d 
U. S., and sent to get his first lessons in actual war 
fighting the Florida Indians. There his superiors 
found occasion to remark that his zeal sometimes 
outran his discretion — not an infrequent fault of 
earnest young men. He had distinguished himself 
and received a brevet in the Mexican War for gal- 
lantry at Contreras and Churubusco, and had then 
been sent to California. With a slender force he 
was charged with the duty of keeping a long frontier 
in order against turbulent Indians. He accomplished 
this by making the Indians more afraid of him than 
the whites could possibly be of them. No quick re- 
treat, no impregnable fastness, could shelter them 
from his inexorable pursuit. On one occasion he 
carried boats on wagons over a mountain range to 
cross a river 'and strike an Indian lair where the 
marauders were resting in the fullest sense of se- 
curity. His company had next been transferred to 



NATHANIEL LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 53 

Kansas in the midst of the political troubles there, 
where, while doing his official duty with strict im- 
partiality, his sympathies were actively with the 
Free State settlers. 

For 42 years he had been growing and fitting him- 
self for a great Opportunity. 

For once Opportunity and the Man equal to it met. 

Immediately after settling his company in the Ar- 
senal, Capt. Lyon went to the city to meet Frank P. 
Blair. The two strong men recognized each the 
other's strength, and at once came into harmonious 
co-operation. 

The fate of the Arsenal, of the City of St. Louis, 
and of the State of Missouri, was settled. 

Before Capt. Lyon arrived, the Committee of 
Safety had had an alarm about the Arsenal, and ral- 
lied a strong force of their Home Guards in waiting 
to go to the assistance of Capt. Sweeny and his 40 
men, should the Minute Men attack him. But the 
Secessionist leaders had such confidence in Maj. 
Hagner that they dissuaded the impatient Basil 
Duke, Colton Greene, Brock Champion and other 
eager young Captains from making the attack. 

Capt. Lyon was soon reinforced. Lieut. Warren 
L. Lothrop, of the 4th U. S. Art., a Maine man, who 
had risen from the ranks, came in with 40 men. He 
was afterwards to succeed Frank P. Blair, Jr., as 
Colonel of the 1st Mo. Light Art. Next came Capt. 
Rufus Saxton, also of the 4th Art., a Massachusetts 
man, later to rise to brevet Major-General of Vol- 
unteers, and to play an important part in caring for 
the freedmen of the South Carolina coast. Still 
later came Capt. James Totten, of the 2d U. S. Art., 



54 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

with his company. He had been born in Pennsyl- 
vania, but was appointed to West Point from Vir- 
ginia, and was in command of the Arsenal at Little 
Rock until he evacuated his post, Feb. 8, before a 
large force of rebels, and retired with his command 
to the Indian Territory, by virtue of the agreement 
with the Governor of the State. While Lothrop and 
Saxton appear to have been taken at once into the 
councils of Capt. Lyon, Capt. Totten does not, prob- 
ably because the uncompromising Lyon did not like 
his methods in Arkansas. He was, however, true 
to his loyalty, and rose eventually to the rank of 
Brigadier-General. 

There were now in the Arsenal nine officers and 
484 men. Hagner and Lyon at once came into col- 
lision. Though Hagner belonged to the Ordnance, 
and not therefore regarded as eligible to command 
troops, he secured an order assigning himself to 
command according to his brevet rank of Major, 
which made him superior to Lyon. Hagner had 
been five years longer in the service than Lyon, but 
his commission as Captain was 20 days junior to 
Lyon's. Lyon energetically protested against Hag- 
ner's assignment in a letter to Blair, who was then 
in Washington, D. C., looking out for matters at that 
end of the line, in which he said : 

It is obvious that the fine stone wall inclosing our grounds 
affords us an excellent defense against attack, if we will take 
advantage of it; and for this purpose platforms should be 
erected for our men to stand on and fire over; and that artil- 
lery should be ready at the gates, to be run out and sweep 
down a hostile force; and sand-bags should be prepared and 
at hand to throw up a parapet to protect the parties at these 
pieces of artillery; inside pieces should be placed to rake the 
whole length, and sweep down each side a party that should 
get over the walls, traverses being erected to protect parties 
at these pieces. A pretty strong field work, with three heavy 



NATHANIEL LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 55 



pieces, should be erected on the side toward the river, to op- 
pose either a floating battery or one that might be established 
on the island; and, finally, besides our houses, every building 
should be mined, with a train arranged so as to blow 
them up successively, as occupied by the enemy. Maj. 
Hagner refuses, as I mentioned to you, to do any of 
these things, and has given his orders not to fly to 
the walls to repel an approach, but to let the enemy 
have all the advantages of the wall to lodge himself behind 
it, and get possession of all outside buildings overlooking us, 
and to get inside and under shelter of our outbuildings, which 
we are not to occupy before we make resistance. This is 

either imbecility or d d villainy, and in contemplating 

the risks we run and the sacrifices we must make in case of an 
attack in contrast to the vigorous and effective defense we 
are capable of, and which, in view of the cause of our country 
and humanity, the disgrace and degradation to which the 
Government has been subject by pusillanimity and treachery, 
we are now called upon to make, I get myself into a most un- 
happy state of solicitude and irritability. With even less force 
and proper disposition, I am confident we can resist any force 
which can be brought against us; by which I mean such force 
as would not be overcome by our sympathizing friends out- 
side. These needful dispositions, with proper industry, can 
be made in 24 hours. There cannot be, as you know, a more 
important occasion nor a better opportunity to strike an ef- 
fective blow at this arrogant and domineering infatuation of 
Secessionism than here; and must this all be lost, by either 
false notions of duty or covert disloyalty? As I have said, 
Maj. Hagner has no right to the command, and, under the 
6 2d Article of War, can only have it by a special assignment 
of the President, which I do not believe has been made; but 
that the announcement of Gen. Scott that the command be- 
longs to Maj. Hagner is his own decision, and done in his 
usual sordid spirit of partisanship and favoritism to pets, and 
personal associates, and toadies; nor can he, even in the pres- 
ent straits of the country, rise above this, in earnest devotion 
to justice and the wants of his country. 

Lyon went to Gen. Harney to urge his right to com- 
mand, from seniority of commission; but Harney 
sustained Hagner, who was in some things much 
more Harney's style than Lyon. Lyon thereupon 
appealed to President Buchanan, which meant to 
Gen. Scott, who, of course, sustained Hagner. Lyon 
was, therefore, forced to submit until Lincoln was 
inaugurated. 

There was no vanity or self-seeking in this ur- 
gency of Lyon's. In the Army he was distinguished 



56 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

for his readiness to subordinate himself to carry out 
any plans which commended themselves to him. He 
had repeatedly offered to subordinate himself to 
Hagner if the latter would take what Lyon thought 
only the most necessary steps at that crisis for the 
defense of the position and stores of priceless im- 
pjortance. 

What Lyon dreaded above all things was some- 
thing akin to that which had freshly occurred at 
Little Rock, where Capt, Totten had withdrawn 
from the Little Eock Arsenal with his company in 
the face of a large mob of Secessionists, upon a re- 
ceipt by the Governor for the arms and stores, and 
the promise that he would account for them to the 
United States Government. Lyon was determined 
to bury himself and his men in the ruins of the Ar- 
senal before it should pass into the hands of the 
Secessionists. 

Basil Duke, Colton Greene, and the other chafing 
young Captains had matured a plot with the con- 
nivance of Gen. Frost, of the Militia, probably some- 
what at his instigation, which v/ould brush aside the 
network of intrigue which Claiborne Jackson and 
others were spinning, bring matters to a focus, and 
in one blow crush Union sentiment, overawe the 
timid, fasten the wavering, seize the Arsenal and 
launch Missouri upon the tide of Secession with the 
Cotton States. 

The police powers of the city of St. Louis had been 
taken away from the Mayor, Frost had his Militia 
in readiness, the Irish were properly worked up to 
a state of exasperation against the "infidel. Sabbath- 
breaking Dutch," and hosts of Americans were in 



NATHANIEL LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 57 

the same net when on the day of Lincoln's inaugura- 
tion the Secession flag was boldly hoisted from the 
roof of the Berthold Mansion, in the most promi- 
nent part of the city. At once excitement burned to 
fever heat. Incensed by the wanton insult, the Ger- 
mans and other Unconditional Union men raged that 
the flag should be torn down, and crowds gathered 
around the Berthold Mansion for that purpose. The 
house had, however, been converted into an arsenal, 
with all the arms and ammunition that could at that 
time be gathered, and filled with determined men 
under the leadership of Duke, Greene and others, 
eager to precipitate a riot, under the cover of which 
the Irish and Americans could be hurled against 
the Germans, and the Arsenal seized. 

Blair and the Committee of Safety saw the danger 
of this. Their followers were not so ready for battle 
as the enemy was, and in conjunction with the more 
conservative leaders of the other side they succeeded 
in restraining their indignant friends from opening 
up a day of blood which would have been forever 
memorable in the history of St. Louis. Blair at once 
hastened back to Washington, and a few days after 
the Inauguration secured from the new Secretary of 
War an order assigning Capt. Lyon to the command 
of the Arsenal. This had to come through Gen. Har- 
ney's hands, and in transmitting it he informed Capt. 
Lyon: 

You shall not exercise any control over the operations of 
the Ordnance Department. The arrangements heretofore 
made for the accommodation of the troops at the Arsenal and 
for the defense of the place will not be disturbed without the 
sanction of the Commanding General. 

This was to save Hagner's pride, as well as pro- 
pitiate Gen. Harney's Secession friends in St. Louis, 



58 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

who were becoming very uneasy at the way the 
"Yankee Abolitionist" was taking hold. 

The dilemma into which Gen. Harney was becom- 
ing daily more involved was far more perplexing 
than any he had encountered in his fighting days. 
A question that could be settled sword in hand never 
had troubled him much. Alas! this could not be — 
not then. On the one side were the lifelong associa- 
tions and habits of thought of the plain old soldier. 
All of his friends were Southerners and Slavehold- 
ers, as he himself was. Nearly all of the public men 
he knew, the officials of the State of Louisiana, which 
he called his home; of Missouri, which was almost 
equally his home, had either gone over irrevocably 
to Secession, or were preparing to do so. In his real 
home, the Army, it was almost as bad. The next 
Brigadier-General above him, Daniel E. Twiggs, had 
just surrendered all the men and property under his 
command to the State of Texas. The men who con- 
trolled the War Department, — Secretary Floyd, Ad- 
jutant-General Samuel Cooper, Quartermaster-Gen- 
eral Joe E. Johnston, Assistant Adjutants-General 
John Withers and George Deas, had gone into the 
Confederate army. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Scott's 
prime favorite, was preparing to do so. 

On the other hand were the deep, ineradicable in- 
stincts of soldierly loyalty to the Flag under which 
he had fought for 40 years. The man who had 
hanged 60 men at one time in Mexico for deserting 
the Flag was likely to have a severe struggle before 
he could bring himself to do the same. He was 
deeply incensed at the "Black Republicans" for ir- 
ritating the Southerners so that they felt compelled 



NATHANIEL LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 59 

to secede, but did not believe that the latter should 
have seceded. At least, until Missouri seceded he 
was going to maintain, as best he could, the National 
authority in his Department. 

A flashlight is thrown on his mental attitude by 
his reply to Lieut, (afterwards General) Schofield, 
when informed by him of the above-mentioned prep- 
arations for seizing the Arsenal under the cover of 

a riot. "A outrage," he exclaimed in his 

usual explosive way. "Why, the State has not yet 
passed the Ordinance of Secession. Missouri has 
not gone out of the United States." 

The limitations placed by Gen. Harney upon Lyon's 
assignment to command were aggravating. Hagner 
commanded the buildings, the arms, ammunition, 
and other stores, and the strong walls surrounding 
the grounds. Lyon commanded merely the men. He 
could not draw a musket, a cannon, or a cartridge 
for either, not even a hammer, a spade nor an ax, 
without a requisition duly approved by Harney. Nor 
could he change a single arrangement of the grounds 
without Harney's approval. 

Lyon M^as almost nightly meeting with the Com- 
mittee of Safety, and visiting the drill-rooms of the 
Home Guards, where he advised, encouraged and 
drilled the men. The Secessionists were extremely 
fearful that in some way he would manage to get 
the arms and ammunition, and besought Harney and 
Hagner to omit no precaution to prevent this. 

When away from his Secessionist environment, 
Harney's soldierly instincts asserted themselves. 
Lyon's vigorous, uncompromising course was far 
more to his mind than the dull, shifty Hagner's. 



60 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

One was zealous in the performance of his duty, and 
the other a red-tape bureaucrat, whose first thought 
always seemed to be to clog and hamper the men in 
the field. Harney had suffered too much from these 
"office fellows" to be especially enamored of them. 
Therefore he had moods, when he gave Lyon a free 
hand, which the latter made the most of until the 
General's mood changed. 

During one of these Lyon had undermined the 
walls of the buildings, placed batteries, built ban- 
quettes for the men to fire over the walls, cut port- 
holes, reinforced the weaker places with sandbags, 
and established a vigilant sentry system to prevent 
surprise. 

The Secessionists were equally full of plans, 
though not of performances. Minute Men were or- 
ganizing throughout the State to rush in at the given 
day by every train and overwhelm St. Louis, taking 
the Arsenal by sheer force of numbers. Many of 
the Captains of the large steamboats which 
carried on the trade between St. Louis and New 
Orleans were zealous Secessionists, and mooted plans 
for assailing the Arsenal on the river side with can- 
non mounted on boats, backed up by large crowds of 
men. But Gov. Jackson and his coterie still relied 
mainly upon inciting some form of riot in the city, 
which would allow Gen. Frost to get possession of 
the Arsenal with his Militia and "protect it from 
violence." Once in Gen. Frost's hands — then! 

The Secessionists scored a point and carried dis- 
may to the Unionists by securing an order from Gen. 
Scott for Capt. Lyon to attend a Court of Inquiry at 
Fort Leavenworth. While he was gone they might 



NATHANIEL LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 61 

carry out their plans with comparative ease and 
safety. Blair, however, succeeded in getting Gen. 
Scott to revoke the order. 

To find out precisely what the position of affairs 
inside the Arsenal was, and to spy out its defenses, 
a number of prominent citizens, among whom was 
James S. Rains, afterwards Brigadier-General in the 
Confederate army, calling themselves Grand Jurors 
for the United States District Court, presented them- 
selves at the Arsenal and attempted an entrance. 
The Sergeant of the Guard held them awhile till he 
could communicate with Capt. Lyon, and they went 
away in anger. 

There were other officers in the Arsenal whom 
Lyon could trust as little as he could Maj. Hagner, 
but Capts. Saxton and Sweeny and Lieut. Lothrop 
stood firmly by him in every movement, going so far 
as to mutually agree that they would shoot Maj. 
Hagner before he should be allowed to turn over the 
arms to the Secessionists. 

The bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter 
and the President's call for troops threw the coun- 
try into a tumult of excitem.ent, and changed the 
political relations everyw'here. All over the South 
the Secessionists were jubilant, and those in Mis- 
souri particularly exultant. Very many of the wav- 
erers at once flocked over to the Secessionists, while 
others sided with the Union. To what extent this 
change took place was as yet unknown, nor which 
side had a majority. Public sympathy as voiced by 
the leading papers seemed to be that the Union had 
"been riven asunder by the mad policy of Mr. Lin- 
coln, and that it was necessary for Missouri to take 



62 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

a stand with the other Border States to prevent his 
attempting to subjugate them." 

Gen. Frost submitted a memorial to Governor 
Jackson, in which were the following recommenda- 
tions : 

1. Convene the General Assembly at once. 

2. Send an agent to the South to procure mortars and siege 
guns. 

3. Prevent the garrisoning of the United States Arsenal at 
Liberty. 

4. Warn the people of Missouri "that the President has 
acted illegally in calling out troops, thus arrogating to him- 
self the war-making power, and that they are therefore by 
no means bound to give him aid or comfort in his attempt to 
subjugate by force of arms a people who are still free; but, 
on the contrary, should prepare themselves to maintain all 
their rights as citizens of Misouri." 

5. Order me (Frost) to form a military camp of instruction 
at or near the city of St. Louis; to muster military companies 
into the service of the State; and to erect batteries and do all 
things necessary and proper to be done in order to maintain 
the peace, dignity, and sovereignty of the State. 

6. Order Gen. Bowen to report with his comnaand to me 
(Frost) for duty. 

He proposed to form a camp of instruction for the 
Militia on the river bluffs near the Arsenal, from 
which it could be commanded by guns and mortars 
to be obtained from the South when Frost with his 
brigade and that of Gen. John S. Bowen, who was 
afterwards to be a Major-General in the Confederate 
army and command a division at Vicksburg, with 
what volunteers they could obtain, would force Lyon 
to surrender the Arsenal and its stores. 

While considering these recommendations the 
Governor received a request from the Secretary of 
War for four regiments of infantry, Missouri's quo- 
ta of the 75,000 men the President had called for. 
To this Governor Jackson replied the next day : 

Your dispatch of the 13th instant, making a call upon Mis- 
souri for four regiments of men for immediate service, has 
been received. There can be, I apprehend, no doubt but these 



NATHANIEL LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 63 

men are intended to form a part of the President's army to 
make war upon the people of the seceded States. Your requi- 
sition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revo- 
lutionary in its objects, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be 
complied with. Not one inan will the State of Missouri fur- 
nish to carry on such an unholy crusade. 

The same day he sent Capts. Greene and Duke to 
Montgomery with a letter to the President of the 
Confederacy, requesting him to furnish the siege 
guns and mortars which Gen. Frost wanted, and an- 
other messenger to Virginia with a similar request. 
He also called the Legislature to meet at Jefferson 
City May 2, to take "measures to perfect the organi- 
zation and equipment of the Militia and raise the 
money to place the State in a proper attitude for de- 
fense." He did not dare order Gen. Frost to estab- 1 
lish his military camp of instruction in St. Louis, 
but he took the more prudent and strictly legal 
course of ordering the commanding officers of the 
several Militia Districts of the State to assemble 
their respective commands at some convenient place, 
and go into encampment for six days for drilling and 
discipline. This order authorized Gen. Frost to es^ 
tablish his camp wherever he pleased within the City 
or County of St. Louis. 

Gen. Bowen, who was in command of a force in 
the southwest to guard the State against the ma- 
rauders from Kansas, was ordered to report with 
certain of his troops to Gen. Frost. The Arsenal at 
Liberty was at once seized by the Secessionists in 
that neighborhood, who secured several hundred 
muskets, four brass guns, and a large amount of 
powder. These proceedings of the Governor dis- 
turbed Gen. Harney greatly, and he wrote at once 
to Gen. Scott asking him for instructions. 



64 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Capt. Lyon did not ask or wait for Instructions. 
He wrote at once to Gov. Dick Yates, of Illinois, to 
obtain authority to hold in readiness for service in 
St. Louis the six regiments which Illinois was called 
upon to furnish. Gov. Yates acted promptly, and re- 
ceived authority to send two or three regiments "to 
support the garrison of the St. Louis Arsenal." Lyon 
received orders to equip these troops, and to issue 
10,000 additional stands of arms to the agent of the 
Governor of Illinois. 

Mr. Blair reached St. Louis from Washington, 
April 17, and at once began acting with the boldness 
and foresight that the situation demanded. By his 
advice Col. Pritchard and other Union officers of the 
Militia resigned. He procured from the War De- 
partment an order placing 5,000 stands of arms at 
the disposal of Lyon for arming "the loyal citizens" 
— the Home Guards — and requested orders by tele- 
graph for Capt. Lyon to muster m.en into the service 
to fill Missouri's requisition, and to have Hagner re- 
moved. 

Lyon, determined not to be taken by surprise, had 
the streets leading to the Arsenal nightly patrolled 
and pickets stationed outside the walls. Gov. Jack- 
son's Police Board complained that this was a viola- 
tion of the City ordinances and in direct interference 
with their duties. They demanded that he should 
obey the law, but he refused. When they appealed 
to Harney, he at once ordered Lyon to quarter his 
men in the Arsenal and forbade him to issue arms 
to anyone without Harney's sanction. This brought 
Blair and Lyon to a parting of the ways with Har- 
ney. They demanded his removal, and April 21 




GEN. FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 



NATHANIEL LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 65 

Harney was removed from the command, and or« 
dered to repair to Washington and report to the 
General-in-Chief. 

On the same day Capt. Lyon was instructed to 
immediately execute the order previously given to 
"arm loyal citizens." He was also ordered to mus- 
ter into the service four regiments, which the Gov- 
ernor had refused to furnish. As the men had long 
been in waiting, Lyon quickly organized the four 
regiments, which elected him their Brigadier-Gen- 
eral. Some of the field officers of these regiments 
were notable men, and were to have brilliant careers 
during the war. The Colonel of the 1st Regiment 
was F. P. Blair, afterwards to become Major-Gen- 
eral commanding a corps; the Lieutenant-Colonel 
was George L. Andrews, afterwards to be a Colonel 
in the Regular Army; the Major was John M. Scho- 
field, later to be Major-General commanding the 
Twenty-third Corps, and still later Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral commanding the Army of the United States. 
The Colonel of the 3d Regiment was Franz Sigel, 
afterwards Major-General commanding the Eleventh 
Corps and the Army of the Shenandoah. 

The four regiments having been filled to the max- 
imum, there were large numbers yet demanding 
muster. From these a fifth regiment of Missouri 
Volunteers and five regiments of "United States 
Reserves" were formed. The most notable among 
the field officers of these were John McNeil, Colonel 
of the 3d Regiment, who afterwards became a Brig- 
adier-General, and B. Gratz Brown, Colonel of the 
4th U. S. Reserves, afterwards Vice Presidential 
nominee on the Greeley ticket. These additional 



66 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

regiments formed another brigade, and elected Capt. 
Sweeny their Brigadier-General. After arming 
these 10,000 men Lyon secured the balance of the 
stores from all danger of treachery or capture by 
transferring them to Alton, 111., where they would 
be under the guardianship of loyal men. 

Thus, in a few, swift weeks after the inauguration 
of President Lincoln, Blair and Lyon, bold even to 
temerity, and even more sagacious than bold, had 
snatched away from the sanguine Secessionists the 
great Arsenal, with its momentous contents, which 
were placed at the service of the Union. 

More than 10,000 loyal men of Missouri were 
standing, arms in hand, on her soil to confront their 
enemies. 

Above all, the Government showed that it would 
no longer tamely submit to being throttled and 
stabbed, but would fight, then, there, and every- 
where, for its life. 



CHAPTER IV. 

UP to the time that Gen. Harney was relieved 
and ordered to Washington, and Capt. Lyon 
was given a free hand, Gen. D. M. Frost's 
course and advice were worthy of his reputation as 
a resolute, far-seeing commander. With the organ- 
ized military companies of his district and the Min- 
ute Men he had a good nucleus for action, and had 
he made a rush on the Arsenal at any of the several 
times that he seems to have contemplated, it would 
have been backed up by several thousand young 
Irishmen and Americans in St. Louis, as well as by 
tens of thousands from the country swarming in as 
fast as they could have gotten railroads and steam- 
boats to carry them. 

Then the capture of the Arsenal would have 
opened the war instead of the firing on Fort Sumter. 

He was then, however, restrained by Gov. Jack- 
son and his coterie, who expected to gain their ends 
by intrigues and manipulations which had proved so 
successful in the other States. 

After, however, Capt. Lyon had equipped some 
10,000 Missourians from the Arsenal and sent most 
of the rest of the arms across the river into Illinois, 
Frost seems to have suddenly become doddering. 
The Rev. Henry W. Beecher used to tell a very ef- 
fective story about an old house dog named Noble. 
Some time in the dim past Noble had found a rabbit 
in a hole under an apple tree. Every day ever after, 
for the rest of his life, Noble would go to the hole 

67 



68 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

and bark industriously at it for an hour or so, with 
as much zeal as if he had found another rabbit there, 
which he never did. 

There seemed to be something of this in Gen. 
Frost's carrying out his idea of establishing a camp 
ostensibly for the instruction of his Militia, on the 
hills near the Arsenal, which he did May 3. It is 
hard to reconcile this with any clear purpose. If he 
intended to assault and capture the Arsenal, the 
force that he gathered was absurdly inadequate, in 
view of what he must have known Lyon had to op- 
pose him. Accounts differ as to the highest number 
he ever had assembled, but it must have been less 
than 2,000. 

His camp, which was in a beautiful grove, then 
in the first flush of the charms of early Springtime, 
was quite an attractive place for the "knightly" 
young Southerners who, filled with the chivalrous 
ideas of Sir Walter Scott's novels, then the preva- 
lent romantic literature of the South, had made much 
ado before their "ladye loves" of "going off to the 
warres," and the aforesaid "ladye loves," decorated 
with Secession rosettes and the red-white-and-red 
colors then emblematic of Secession, followed their 
"true-loves" to the camp, and made Lindell Grove 
bright with the gaily-contrasting hues in bonnets 
and gowns. There were music and parades, pre- 
sentations, flags and banners, dancing and feasting, 
and all the charming accessories of a military pic- 
nic. But some how the material for common sol- 
diers did not flock to the Camp as the Secessionists 
had hoped. Possibly the stern uprising of the loyal 
people of the North in response to the firing upon 



THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 69 

Fort Sumter, and the mustering of solid battalions 
in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas, immediately around 
the Missouri borders, had a repressing effect upon 
those who had at first thought of going with a light 
heart into Secession. It began to look as if there 
were going to be something more serious than a 
Fourth of July barbecue about this work of break- 
ing up the Union. 

Certainly, recruits had not come to Camp Jackson, 
which Frost had so named in honor of the Governor 
of the State, as they had flocked into similar camps 
farther South. Nor had they come in the numbers 
which were assembled around Lyon and Blair, ap- 
pealing for arms. Still, the men in Camp Jackson 
had a resolute purpose, under all the frivolity and 
merry-making of the gay camp, and presently Capts. 
Colton Greene and Basil Duke returned with the 
cheering news that their mission to Jefferson Davis 
had been entirely successful. Heavy artillery would 
be furnished with which to batter down the walls 
of the Arsenal, and force the Home Guards to fight 
or surrender. They brought with them the following 
encouraging letter from the President of the South- 
ern Confederacy: 

Montgomery, Ala., April 23, 1861. 
His Excellency C. F. Jackson, Governor of Missouri. 

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge yours of the 17th 
instant, borne by Capts. Greene and Duke, and have most 
cordially welcomed the fraternal assurances it brings. 

A misplaced but generous confidence has, for years past, 
prevented the Southern States from making the preparation 
required by the present emergency, and our power to supply 
you with ordnance is far short of the will to serve you. After 
learning as well as I could from the gentlemen accredited to 
me what was most needful for the attack on the Arsenal, I 
have directed that Capts. Greene and Duke should be furnished 
with two 12-pounder howitzers and two 32-pounder guns, 
with the proper ammunition for each. These, from the com- 
manding hills, will be effective, both against the garrison and 



70 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

to breach the inclosing- walls of the place. I concur with 3"ou 
as to the great importance of capturing the Arsenal and se- 
curing its supplies, rendered doubly important by the means 
taken to obstruct your commerce and render you unarmed 
victims of a hostile invasion. 

We look anxiously and hopefully for the day when the star 
of Missouri shall be added to the constellation of the Confed- 
erate States of America. 

[With best wishes, I am, very respectfully, yours, 

JEPFEl-.JON DAVIS. 

This promise was at once made good by a letter to 
the Governor of Louisiana to deliver the required 
war material from the stores in the lately-captured 
arsenal at Baton Rouge. These, carefully disguised 
as marble, ale, and other innocent stores, were 
shipped upon the steamboat J. C. Swan, and con- 
signed to a well-known Union firm in St. Louis, with 
private marks to identify them to the Secessionists, 
who, on the watch for them, had them at once loaded 
on drays and taken to Camp Jackson. Their move- 
ments, however, were made known to Blair and the 
Committee of Safety by their spies, and Capt. Lyon 
was urged to seize the stores upon their arrival at 
the wharf, but he preferred to allow them to reach 
their destination, where they would serve to fix the 
purpose of the camp upon those commanding the 
garrison. 

Lyon, who as a soldier had naturally chafed under 
the insulting presence on the hills of a force hardly 
concealing its hostility under a thin vail of pro- 
fessed loyalty, at once resolved upon the capture of 
the camp. The more cautious of the Union men tried 
to restrain him. They argued that the camp would 
expire by legal limitation within a few days. To 
this Lyon opposed the probability that the Legisla- 
ture would pass the military bill in some form and 



THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 71 

make the camp a permanent one. Then, those tim- 
orous ones insisted that the forms of the law should 
be employed, and that the United States Marshal, 
armed with a writ of replevin to recover United 
States property, should precede the attack upon the 
camp. Lyon fretted under this. The writ of re- 
plevin was a tiresome formality to men who talked 
of fighting and were ready to fight ; furthermore, if 
served and recognized, Frost might put off the Mar- 
shal with some trumpery stuff of no value. Still 
further came the news that Harney, with Gen. 
Scott's assistance, had reinstated himself in favor at 
Washington, and would return the following Sunday. 
It was now Wednesday, the 8th of May. ^ 

Above all, Lyon saw with a clearer insight than 
the strict law-abiders the immense moral effect of 
his contemplated action. Heretofore all the initia- 
tiveness, all the aggressiveness, all the audacity, had 
been on the side of the Secessionists. They were 
everywhere taking daring steps to the confusion and 
overthrow of the conservative Unionists, and so 
dragging with them hosts of the wavering. He 
longed to strike a quick, sharp blow to teach the 
enemies of the Government that they could no longer 
proceed with impunity, but must expect a return 
blow for every one they gave, and probably more. 

On Wednesday evening. May 8, Capt. Lyon re- 
quested Mr. J. J. Witzig, one of the Committee of 
Safety, to meet him at 2 o'clock the next day with a 
horse and buggy. At the appointed hour Witzig 
went to Lyon's quarters and inquired for the "Gen- 
eral," by which title Lyon was known after his elec- 
tion as Brigadier-General of the Missouri Militia. As 



72 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

he entered Lyon's room, Witzig saw a lady seated 
near the door, vailed and evidently waiting for some 
one. He inquired if she was waiting for the General 
to come in, and seating himself near the window 
awaited the coming of Lyon. A few minutes later 
the lady arose, lifted her vail, and astonished Mr. 
Witzig with the very unfeminine features of Lyon 
himself. Mrs. Alexander had loaned him the clothes, 
and succeeded in attiring him so that the deception 
was complete. Taking a couple of heavy revolvers, 
Gen. Lyon entered a barouche belonging to the loyal 
Franklin Dick, and was driven by Mr. Dick's ser- 
vant leisurely out to Camp Jackson, followed by Mr. 
Witzig in a buggy. Lyon saw everything in the 
camp that he wished to see ; noticed that the streets 
were named Davis Avenue, Beauregard Avenue, and 
the like ; took in the lay of the ground, and returning 
toward the Arsenal, stopped and directed Witzig to 
summon the other members of the Committee of 
Safety to immediately meet him at the Arsenal. 

He stated to them, when they gathered, the ne- 
cessity of at once capturing the camp, and his de- 
termination to do so and hold all in it as prisoners 
of war. Blair and Witzig warmly approved this; 
Filley and Broadhead finally acquiesced, while How 
and Glover v/ere opposed to both the manner and 
time and wanted a writ of replevin served by the 
United States Marshal. If Gen. Frost refused to re- 
spect this, Lyon could then go to his assistance. 

Lyon yielded so far as to allow Glover to get out 
the writ of replevin, but he was not disposed to dally 
long with that subterfuge, and his line of battle 
would not be far behind the Marshal. Even before 



THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 73 

he went out to the camp he had sent an Aid to pro- 
cure 36 horses for his batteries from the leading 
livery stables in the city, because he feared that Maj. 
McKinstry, the Chief Quartermaster of the Depart- 
ment, could not be trusted; a doubt v/hich seems to 
have been well founded, for Maj. McKinstry after- 
wards refused to pay for the horses until he was 
compelled to do so by a peremptory order from Lyon. 
The Secessionist spies were as vigilant and suc- 
cessful as those of the Unionists, and Gen. Frost was 
promptly informed of the designs upon him, where- 
upon on the morning of the fateful May 10 he dis- 
patched Col. Bowen, his Chief of Staff, with the fol- 
lowing letter to Gen. Lyon : 

Headquarters, Camp Jackson, 

Missouri Militia, May 10, 1861. 
Capt. N. Lyon, Commanding- United States troops in and about 
St. Louis Arsenal. 

Sir: I am constantly in receipt of information that you 
contemplate an attack upon my carap. Whilst I understand 
you are impressed with the idea that an attack upon the Ar- 
senal and the United States troops is intended on the part of 
the Militia of Missouri, I am greatly at a loss to know what 
could justify you in attacking citizens of the United States, 
who are in the lawful performance of duties devolving- upon 
them, under the Constitution, in organizing and instructing 
the Militia of the State in obedience to her laws, and there- 
fore have been disposed to doubt the correctness of the infor- 
mation I have received. 

I would be glad to know from you personally whether there 
is any truth in the statements that are constantly poured into 
my ears. So far as regards any hostility being intended to- 
ward the United States or its property or representatives, by 
any portion of my command, or as far as I can learn (and I 
think I am fully informed) of any other part of the State 
forces, I can say positively that the idea has never been en- 
tertained. On the contrary, prior to your taking coinmand of 
the Arsenal, I proffered to Maj. Bell, then in command of the 
very few troops constituting its guard, the services of myself 
and all my command, and, if necessary, the whole power of 
the state to protect the United States in the full possession 
of all her property. Upon Gen. Harney's taking command 
of this Department I made the same proffer of services to 
him and authorized his Adjutant-General, Capt. Williams, to 
communicate the fact that such had been done to the War 



74 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Department. I have had no occasion to change any of the 
views I entertained at that time, neither of my own volition 
nor through orders of my constitutional commander. 

I trust that after this explicit statement we may be able, by 
fully understanding each other, to keep far from our borders 
the misfortunes which so unhappily afflict our common coun- 
try. 

This communication will be handed you by Col. Bowen, my 
Chief of Staff, who maj^ be able to explain anything not fully 
set forth in the foregoing. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

D. M. FROS-T, 

Brigadier-General, Commanding Camp Jackson, M. V. M. 

It is an almost impossible task for the historian to 
reconcile this extraordinary letter with Gen. Frost's 
standing as an officer and a gentleman. It certainly 
passes the limits of deception allowable in war, and 
has no place in the ethics of civil life. 

The camp was located where it was for the gen- 
erally understood purpose of attacking the Arsenal, 
and this purpose had been recommended to the Gov- 
ernor of the State by Gen. Frost himself. Every Se- 
cessionist, North and South, understood and boasted 
of it. Jefferson Davis approved of this, and he sent 
artillery with which to attack the Arsenal, which 
w^as then in Frost's camp. Gen. Lyon refused to re- 
ceive the letter. He was busily engaged in prepara- 
tions to carry its answer himself. He had under 
arms almost his entire force. Two regiments of 
Home Guards were left on duty protecting the Ar- 
senal, and to be ready for any outbreak in the city, 
and a majority of the Regulars were also so em- 
ployed. 

Gen. Lyon was a thorough organizer, and had his 
work well in hand with every one of his subordin- 
ates fully instructed as to his part. The previous 
military training of the Germans here came into 
good play, and regiments formed quickly and moved 



THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 75 

promptly. Col. Blair, with his regiment and a bat- 
talion of Regulars, marched to a position on the 
west of the camp. Col. Schuttner with his regiment 
went up Market street ; Col. Sigel led his column up 
Olive street; Col. Brown went up Morgan street; 
and Col. McNeil up Clark avenue. A battery of six 
pieces went with a Regular battalion, at the head of 
which rode Gen. Lyon. The news of the movement 
rapidly diffused through the city; everybody was 
excited and eagerly expectant; and the roofs of the 
houses were black with people watching events. Not 
the least important factor were the Secessionist 
belles of the city, whose lovers and brothers were in 
Camp Jackson, and who, with that inconsequence 
which is so charming in the young feminine mind, 
were breathlessly expectant of their young heroes 
each surrounding himself with a group of "Dutch 
myrmidons," slain by his red right hand. 

So admirably had Lyon planned that the heads 
of all his colunms appeared at their designated places 
almost simultaneously, and Gen. Frost found his 
camp entirely surrounded in the most soldierly way. 
The six light pieces galloped into position to entirely 
command the camp. With a glance of satisfaction 
at the success of his arrangements. Gen. Lyon rode 
up to Sweeny, his second in command, and said: 

"Sweeny, if their batteries open on you, deploy 
your leading company as skirmishers, charge on the 
nearest battery, and take it." 

Sweeny turned to the next two companies to him, 
and ordered them to move their cartridge-boxes to 
the front, to prepare for action. Lyon then sent 



76 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Maj. B. G. Farrar with the following letter to Gen. 
Frost : 

Headquarters United States Troops, 

St. Louis, Mo., May 10, 1861. 
Gen. D. M. Frost, Commanding Camp Jaclcson. 

Sir: Your command is regarded as evidently hostile to the 
Government of tlie United States. 

It is for the most part made up of those Secessionists who 
have openly avowed their hostility to the General Govern- 
ment, and have been plotting at the seizure of its property 
and the overthrow of its authority. You are openly in com- 
munication with the so-called Southern Confederacy, which 
is now at war with the United States; and you are receiving 
at your camp, from said Confederacy and under its flag, large 
supplies of the material of war, most of which is known to be 
the property of the United States. These extraordinary prep- 
arations plainly indicate none other than the well-known 
purpose of the Governor of this State, under whose orders 
you are acting, and whose purpose, recently communicated 
to the Legislature, has just been responded to in the most un- 
paralleled legislation, having in direct view hostilities to the 
General Government and co-operation with its enemies. 

In view of these considerations, and of your failure to dis- 
perse in obedience to the proclamation of the President, and 
of the eminent necessities of State policy and welfare, and 
the obligations iinposed upon me by instructions from Wash- 
ington, it is my duty to demand, and I do hereby demand of 
you, an immediate surrender of your command, with no other 
conditions than that all persons surrendering under this de- 
mand shall be humanely and kindly treated. Believing my- 
self prepared to enforce this demand, one-half hour's time 
before doing so will be allowed for your compliance there- 
with. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

N. LYON, 
Captain, 2d United States Infantry, Commanding Troops. 

There were a few anxious minutes following this, 
but it must be said to Frost's credit as a soldier that 
he promptly recognized the situation and acted upon 
it. Soon a horseman rode out from the camp, and 
approaching Lyon handed him the following note : 

Camp Jackson, Mo., May 10, 1861. 
Capt. N. Lyon, Commanding U. S. Troops. 

Sir: I, never for a moment having conceived the idea that 
so illegal and unconstitutional a demand as I have just re- 
ceived from you would be made by an officer of the United 
States Army, am wholly unprepared to defend my command 



THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 77 

from this unwarranted attack, and shall therefore be forced 
to comply with your demand. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

D. M. FROST, 
Brig-adier-General, Commanding Camp Jackson, Missouri Vol- 
unteer Militia. 

Lyon read it, turned to his second in command and 
remarked : "Sweeny, they surrender." 

Sweeny turned to his men with the order to re- 
place their cartridge-boxes, which they did with an 
air of disappointment. There had been so much 
talk during the weeks and months of preparation 
about fighting and such irritating threatenings, that 
the Union troops were anxious to "take a fall" out of 
their opponents, and see what would be the result. 
Lyon dismounted, and unfortunately the fractious 
horse of one of his Aids at that instant kicked him in 
the stomach, knocking him senseless. While in this 
condition, Wm. D. Wood, Frost's Adjutant-General, 
rode up and inquired for Gen. Lyon. Gen. Sweeny, 
desiring to conceal Lyon's condition from the enemy, 
replied that he would receive any message intended 
for the General. Col. Wood then said : 

"Gen. Frost sends his compliments to Gen. Lyon, 
and wishes to know if the officers will be allowed to 
retain their side-arms, what disposition shall be 
made of Government property, and if a guard will 
be sent to relieve his men now on post, and take 
possession of everything when the camp shall be 
evacuated?" 

Sweeny replied affirmatively, when Wood rode off 
and Sweeney returned to Lyon, to find him slowly 
recovering. Lyon approved of Sweeny's answer, 
and directed Sweeny to take possession of the camp 



78 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

with two companies of Regulars. Frost's men 
stacked arms and marched off through a lane 
formed by the 1st Mo., which faced inward. Up to 
this time everything had gone on peacefully. The 
surrendered Militia, without any special protest or 
demonstration, took their places quietly under guard. 
Not so with the immense mob which had gathered, 
expecting to see the Militia make sanguinary havoc 
of their assailants. These were deeply chagrined at 
the tame issue of the affair, and after exhausting all 
the vile epithets at their command, began throwing 
stones, brickbats, and other missiles, which the sol- 
diers received as patiently as they did the contumely, 
when the bolder of the mob began firing with revol- 
vers. Presently one of Co. F, 3d Mo., commanded 
by Capt. C. Blandowski, was shot dead, several se- 
verely wounded, and the Captain himself fell with 
a bullet through his leg. As he fell he ordered his 
men to fire, which resulted in about 20 of the rioters 
dropping under a volley from the soldiers' muskets. 
The mob fled in dismay, and Gen. Lyon ordered his 
troops to cease firing. 

One of the leaders of the mob had deliberately 
fired three times at Capt. Saxton, of the Regulars, 
and had laid his revolver across his arm for a fourth 
more deliberate shot, when one of Capt. Saxton's 

men bayoneted while another shot him. When the 

\ smoke cleared away, it was found that 15 had been 
\ killed. Three of these were prisoners from Camp 
\ Jackson, and two were women whose morbid curi- 
osity, or worse, had led them to mingle with the mob. 
One was a child. 

Capt. Blandowski died of his wounds the next day. 



THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 79 

At 6 o'clock the troops and prisoners marched back 
to the Arsenal, leaving Gen. Sweeny with his Regu- 
lars in charge of Camp Jackson. On the way rioters 
thronged the line of march and vilely abused the 
soldiers, but Lyon was vigilant in restraining his 
men, and prevented their making any return by fir- 
ing upon their assailants. 

During the night and the next day the prisoners 
were all released, the privates taking an oath not to 
serve in any capacity against the Government dur- 
ing the war, and the officers giving a parole not to 
serve in any military capacity against the United 
States. It was provided that the parole should be 
returned upon anyone surrendering himself as a 
prisoner of war, and was accompanied with a pro- 
test against the justice of executing it. One excep- 
tion, Capt. Emmett MacDonald, who had been effic- 
ient in bringing the Irishmen into opposition to the 
"Dutch," refused to accept the parole on the ground 
taken by all the others that they had done nothing 
v^^rong, and finally secured his release through a writ 
of habeas corpus. 

The excitement that night in St. Louis was fear- 
ful, with the Secessionists raging. It is to the credit, 
however, of James McDonough, whom Governor 
Jackson's Secessionist Police Commissioners had 
appointed Chief of Police, that, whatever his sym- 
pathies, he did not allow them to interfere with his 
official duties, and exerted himself to the utmost 
to preserve the municipal peace. The violent Seces- 
sionists started to mob the offices of the Republican 
papers, and to attack the residences of Union lead- 
ers, but were everywhere met by squads of police 



80 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

backed up by an armed force of Home Guards, 
which, with the appeals of the conservative men of 
influence on both sides, managed to stay the storm. 
McDonough could not, however, prevent a number of 
outrages, and several of the Home Guards caught 
alone were killed by the rowdies that night and the 
next day — Saturday. This incensed the Germans 
terribly, and stories reached the Secession parts of 
the city that they contemplated fearful revenge, 
which they could wreak, having arms in their own 
hands, while the "natural protectors" of the people — 
Frost's military companies — were prisoners of war 
and disarmed. 

The Mayor issued a proclamation to quiet the peo- 
ple, and requested all keepers of drinking places to 
at once close and remain closed during the excite- 
ment. All minors were ordered to remain in doors 
for three days, and all good citizens were requested 
to remain in doors after nightfall and to avoid gath- 
erings and meetings. 

As was usual, a good many people who meant no 
evil obeyed this proclamation, while the mobites, 
who meant a great deal of harm, paid no attention 
to it. Saturday afternoon, the 5th Regiment of 
United States Reserves, under the command of 
Lieut.-Col. Robert White, attem.pted to go to their 
barracks, when they were assailed by a m.ob with 
stones, brickbats and pistol shots. The patience of 
the soldiers finally gave way, and they fired into the 
crowd, killing several persons and wounding many 
others. 

Sunday the Secessionists were in a panic, and be- 
gan a wild flight from the city. Every vehicle that 




GEN. JOHN C. FREMONT 



THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 81 

could be obtained was employed at exorbitant prices 
to carry men, women and children, baggage and per- 
sonal effects, to the depots and wharves, where the 
railroads and steamboats were ready to receive 
them. The Mayor attempted to stay the stampede 
by a speech at the Planters' House, in which he as- 
sured the people that the Home Guards were entirely 
under the control of their officers, and would only be 
used to preserve the peace and protect property. 

What was more effective was the news that Gen. 
Harney, hurrying back from Washington, had ar- 
rived the preceding evening and resumed command. 
Harney had reached the city on Saturday evening, 
May 11, and Sunday morning called at the Arsenal 
on Col. Blair, not Gen. Lyon, v\^hom he informed of 
his intentions to remove the Home Guards from the 
Arsenal and disband them. Blair succeeded in con- 
vincing him that this was beyond his authority, and 
did not hesitate to say that his attempt to do so 
would be resisted. Being convinced, Harney sent a 
messenger to the Board of Police Commissioners, 
who were anxiously awaiting the result of his visit, 
to the effect that he had "no control over the Home 
Guards," which was intended to mean that he could 
not remove or disband them, but which the Commis- 
sioners and the people understood to mean that he 
had lost control over them. 

The panic at once resumed its former proportions, 
and Gen. Harney found it necessary to issue a proc- 
lamation, in which he said that the public peace 
must and would be preserved, and the lives and prop- 
erty of the people protected, but he trusted that he 
would not be compelled to resort to martial law. He 



82 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

would avoid all cause of irritation and excitement 
whenever called upon to aid the local authorities by 
using in preference the Regular troops. Therefore 
he began by restricting the Home Guards to the Ger- 
man parts of the city, while he moved about 250 
Regulars, under the command of Capts. Totten and 
Sweeny and Lieuts. Saxton and Lothrop, with four 
pieces of artillery, into a central position, where they 
went into quarters, to the great relief of everybody. 

It will be perceived that a remarkable change had 
come over the people since a few weeks before, when 
the arrival of a little squad of Regulars at the Sub- 
Treasury to protect its gold had thrown the city in 
the wildest excitement over "the attempt to overawe 
and cow the people of Missouri." 

Confidence was restored, and quiet ensued. Gen. 
Frost lodged a protest with Gen. Harney, in which 
he recited the circumstances of Lyon's attack upon 
him, claimed that every officer and soldier in his 
command had taken, with uplifted hand, the follow- 
ing oath : 

You, each and every one of you, do solemnly swear that 
you will honestly and faithfully serve the State of Missouri 
against her enemies, and that you will do your utmost to 
sustain the Constitution and laws of the United States and 
of this State against all violence, of whatsoever kind or 
description, and you do further swear that you will well and 
truly execute and obey the legal orders of all offlcers prop- 
erly placed over you whilst on duty; so help you God. 

A casual inspection shows how cunningly this was 
framed. It will be perceived that every one solemnly 
swore to "serve the State of Missouri against all her 
enemies," and to "obey the orders of the officers" 
placed over him, while he was merely enjoined to do 
his utmost to sustain the Constitution and laws of 
the United States and this State against all violence. 



THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 83 

It is easy to see how such an obligation would be 
construed. 

Gen. Frost recited again that he had offered to 
help Gen. Lyon protect the United States property 
with his whole force, and if necessary with that of 
Missouri, and appealed to Gen. Harney not to re- 
quire the indignity of a parole, but to order the res- 
toration of all the officers and men to liberty, and of 
all the property of the State and of private individ- 
uals. The language of this protest did as little to 
enhance the reputation of Gen. Frost as his letter 
to Gen. Lyon. 

It was an intense disappointment to the Seces- 
sionists everywhere that he made no show of a fight 
before surrendering. It would have been the great- 
est satisfaction to all of them had he chosen to make 
Camp Jackson a Thermopylae or an Alamo. Such a 
sacrifice would have been of priceless worth in firing 
the Southern heart, and placing him high among the 
world's heroes. Somehow the idea of martyrdom 
did not appeal to him, as it has not to millions of 
other men placed in critical positions. The wonder 
to the calm student of history is that, having made 
such a bold bluff at Lyon, he did not ''fill his hand" 
better, to use a sporting phrase, and prevent Lyon 
from "calling" him so effectually. The frost which 
was in his name settled on this "young Napoleon" 
thereafter — the country was filled with young Na- 
poleons at that time — and though he commanded a 
brigade in the Confederate army for some two years 
or more, his name is only "mentioned" afterward in 
the Kebellion Records. 

Lyon's decisive act did not meet with the unani- 



84 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

mous approval of the Union men of the State. There 
began then that unhappy division between the "Con- 
servative Union men" and the "Radicals" which led 
to so many collisions, and sorely distracted Presi- 
dent Lincoln. The "Radicals" who fell under the 
lead of F. P. Blair, and had their representative in 
the Cabinet at Washington in the shape of Mont- 
gomery Blair, the Postmaster-General, dubbed their 
opponents "Claybanks," while the latter, whose rep- 
resentative in the Cabinet was Edward Bates, the 
Attorney-General, tainted with the name of "Char- 
coals" their opponents. The "Conservatives," who 
represented a very large portion of the wealth and 
education of the State, had for leaders such men 
as Hamilton R. Gamble, Robert Campbell, James E. 
Yeatman, H. S. Turner, Washington King, N. J. 
Eaton, and Jamies H. Lucas. They at once sent a 
delegation to Washington to represent to Mr. Lin- 
coln that Lyon, while undoubtedly "a loyal and brave 
soldier," was "rash," "imprudent," and "indiscreet." 
This representation carried great weight, for they 
were all men of the highest character and standing, 
and at their instance Gen. Harney was pushed fur- 
ther to the front again. 

The "Old Dragoon" now asserted itself in Harney, 
as it was likely to when there was the smell of gun- 
powder in the air. Lyon's course was, in spite of the 
intense influence of Harney's Secession convives, 
very much to the taste of the old fighter. He wrote 
to Gen. Scott that he approved Lyon's action, and 
replied to the Judge in the habeas corpus writ of 
Capt. McDonald, that the man had been properly ar- 



THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 85 

rested. May 14 he issued a proclamation in which 
he said: 

It Is with regret that I feel it my duty to call your attention 
io the recent act of the General Assembly of Missouri, known 
IS the "Military Bill," which is the result, no doubt, of the 
temporary excitement that now pervades the public mind, 
rhis bill cannot be regarded in any other light than an indi- 
rect Secession ordinance, ignoring even the form resorted to 
by other States. Manifestly, its most material provisions are 
n conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States. 
ro this extent it is a nullity, and cannot and ought not to be 
upheld or regarded by the good citizens of Missouri. There 
ire obligations and duties resting upon the people of Mis- 
souri under the Constitution and laws of the United States 
ivhich are paramount, and which I trust you will carefully 
3onsider and weigh well before you will allow yourselves to 
be carried out of the Union under the form of yielding obe- 
iience to this military bill, which is clearly in violation of 
S'our duties as citizens of the United States. 

It must be apparent to every one who has taken a proper 
ind unbiased view of the subject that, whatever may be the 
termination of the unfortunate condition of things in respect 
to the so-called Cotton States, Missouri must share the destiny 
of the Union. Her geographical position, her soil, produc- 
tions, and, in short, all her material interests, point to this 
result. We cannot shut our eyes against this controlling fact, 
rt is seen and its force is felt throughout the Nation. So 
important is this regarded to the great interests of the coun- 
try, that I venture to express the opinion that the whole power 
of the Government of the United States, if necessary, will be 
exerted to maintain Missouri in her present position in the 
Union. I express to you, in all frankness and sincerity, my 
own deliberate convictions, without assuming to speak for the 
Government of the United States, whose authority here and 
elsewhere I shall at all times and under all circumstances en- 
deavor faithfully to uphold. I desire above all things most 
earnestly to invite my fellow-citizens dispassionately to con- 
sider their true interests as well as their true relations to the 
Government under which we live and to which we owe so 
much. 

In this connection I desire to direct attention to one sub- 
ject which, no doubt, will be made the pretext for more or 
less popular excitement. I allude to the recent transactions 
at Camp Jackson, near St. Louis. It is not proper for me to 
comment upon the official conduct of my predecessor in com- 
mand of this Department, but it is right and proper for the 
people of Missouri to know that the main avenue of Camp 
Jackson, recently under the command of Gen. Frost, had the 
name of Davis, and a principal street of the same camp that 
of Beauregard, and that a body of men had been received 
into that camp by its commander which had been notoriously 
organized in the interests of the Secessionists, the men openly 
wearing the dress and badge distinguishing the Army of the 



86 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 



so-called Southern Confederacy. It is also a notorious fact 
that a quantity of arms had been received into the camp 
which were unlawfully taken from the United States Arsenal 
at Baton Rouge, and surreptitiously passed up the river in 
boxes marked "Marble." 

Upon facts like these, and having in view what occurred at 
Liberty, the people can draw their own inferences, and it can- 
not be difficult for any one to arrive at a correct conclusion 
as to the character and ultimate purpose of that encampment. 
No Government in the world would be entitled to respect that 
would tolerate for a moment such openly treasonable prepar- 
ations. It is but simple justice, however, that I should state 
the fact that there were many good and loyal men in the 
camp who were in no manner responsible for its treasonable 
character. Disclaiming as I do all desire or intention to inter- 
fere in any way with the prerogatives of the State of Mis- 
souri or with the functions of its executive or other authori- 
ties, yet I regard it as my plain path of duty to express to the 
people, in respectful but at the same time decided language, 
that within the field and scope of my command and authority 
the "supreme law" of the land must and shall be maintained, 
and no subterfuges, whether in the forms of legislative acts 
or otherwise, can be permitted to harass or oppress the good 
and law-abiding people of Missouri. I shall exert my author- 
ity to protect their persons and property from violations of 
every kind, and shall deem it my duty to suppress all un- 
lawful combinations of men, whether formed under pretext 
of military organizations or otherwise. 

WM. S. HARNEY. 
Brigadier-General, United States Army, Commanding. 

These were certainly "brave words, my masters," 
and had great influence upon the people of Missouri. 
Unhappily there was reason to think afterwards 
that Gen. Harney was not quite living up to them. 

When the account of stock of the capture of Camp 
Jackson came to be taken, the invoice was as fol- 
lows: 

Three 32-pounders. 

Three mortar-beds. 

A large quantity of balls and bombs in ale barrels. 

Artillery pieces, in boxes of heavy plank, the boxes marked 
"Marble," "Tamaroa, care of Greeley & Gale, St. Louis — -Iron 
Mountain Railroad." 

Twelve hundred rifles, of late model. United States manu- 
facture. 

Tents and camp equipage. 

Six brass field pieces. 

Twenty-five kegs of powder. 

Ninety-six 10-inch bombshells. 

Three hundred six-inch bombshells. 



THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 87 

Six brass mortars, six inches diameter. 

One iron mortar, 10 inches. 

Three iron cannon, six inches. 

Five boxes of canister shot. 

Fifty artillery swords. 

Two hundred and twenty-seven spades. 

Thirty-eight hatchets. 

Eleven mallets. 

One hundred and ninety-one axes. 

Forty horses. 

Several boxes of new muskets. 

A very large number of musket stocks and mus- 
ket barrels ; together with lots of bayonets, bayonet 
scabbards, etc. 

One thousand one hundred and ten enlisted men 
were taken prisoners, besides from 50 to 75 officers. 

Nothing legislates so firmly and finally as a suc- 
cessful sword-blow for the right. Gen. Lyon's cap- 
ture of Camp Jackson was an epoch-making incident. 
In spite of the protests of the wealthy and respect- 
able Messrs. Gamble, Yeatman, and others, it was 
the right thing, done at the right time, to stay the 
surging sweep of the waves of Secession. It de- 
stroyed the captivating aggressiveness of the "Dis- 
unionists," and threw their leaders upon the defen- 
sive. Other people than they had wants and de- 
sires which must be listened to, or the Loyalists 
would find a way to compel attention. The Seces- 
sionists must now plead at their bar ; not they in the 
court of those who would destroy the Government. 



CHAPTER V. 




M. Jeff. Thompson. 



f I "MIE General Assembly of 
Missouri met at Jefferson 
City, in obedience to the 
Governor's call, on the 2d 
of May, and the Governor, 
after calling attention of 
the body to the state of the 
country, made an out-and- 
out appeal for Secession, 
saying that the interests 
and sympathies of Missouri were identical with 
those of other Slaveholding States, and she must un- 
questionably unite her destiny with theirs. She had 
no desire for war, but she would be faithless as to 
her honor and recreant as to her duty if she hesi- 
tated a moment to make complete preparations for 
the protection of her people, and that therefore the 
Legislature should "place the State at the earliest 
practicable moment in a complete state of defense." 
As this is what the Legislature had expected, and 
what it had met for, no time was lost in going into 
secret session to carry out the program. 

The first of these was the odious Military Bill, the 
passage of which was stubbornly resisted, step by 
step, by the small band of Union men. This, it will 
be recollected, put every able-bodied man into the 
Militia of Missouri, under the orders of officers to 
be appointed by the Governor; compelled him to 

88 



THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT. 89 

obey implicitly the orders received from those above 
him, and prescribed the heinous crime of "treason 
to the State," which extended even to words spoken 
in derogation of the Governor or Legislature. Of- 
fenses of this kind were to be punished by summary 
court-martial, which had even the power to inflict 
death. Other bills perverted the funds for the State 
charitable institutions into the State military chest, 
seized the school fund for the same purpose, and 
authorized a loan from the banks of $1,000,000 and 
another of $1,000,000 of State bonds, to provide 
funds by which to carry out the program. 

On the evening of Friday, May 10, while these 
measures were being fought over, the Governor en- 
tered the House with a dispatch which he handed to 
Representative Vest, afterwards United States Sen- 
ator from Missouri, who sprang upon a chair and 
thrilled all his hearers by reading that "Frank Blair, 
Capt. Lyon and the Dutch" had captured Camp Jack- 
son, seized all the property there, and marched the 
State troops prisoners to the Arsenal. The wild scene 
that followed is simply indescribable. For many 
months there had been much talk about "firing the 
Southern heart," and here was something of immedi- 
ate and furnace heat. 

As soon as the members recovered from the stun 
of the blow, they went into paroxysms of passion. 
In a few minutes the Military Bill was rushed 
through, followed by the others, and a new one to 
appropriate $10,000 for the purpose of securing an 
alliance with the Indians on the borders of the State. 
This done, the members bolted out in search of 
weapons with which to arm themselves, as there 



90 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

was a rumor that the awful Blair and Lyon with 
their "mercenaries" were on the march to subject 
the Legislature to the same treatment that 
they had Frost's Militia. Muskets, shotguns, rifles, 
pistols and pikes were brought out, cleaned up, bul- 
lets molded and cartridges made, and the Governor 
ordered the members of his staff to seize a locomo- 
tive and press on as fast as possible towards St. 
Louis to reconnoiter the advance of the enemy; if 
necessary, to destroy the bridges over the Gascon- 
ade and Osage Rivers to obstruct the march. 

No enemy was found, but the zealous Basil Duke, 
in order not to be guilty of any sin of omission, burnt 
a part of the Osage bridge. The meeting of the Leg- 
islature in the evening was grotesque, as every mem- 
ber came with a more or less liberal supply of arms, 
usually including a couple of revolvers and a bowie- 
knife in belt. During the exciting session which fol- 
lowed, rifles stood by the desks or were laid across 
them, Vv^ith other arms, and it was good luck more 
than anything else that no casualty resulted from 
accidental discharge of fire-arms. The excitement 
grew over the stirring events in St. Louis of Satur- 
day and Sunday, and the Governor immediately pro- 
ceeded to the exercise of the extraordinary powers 
conferred upon him by the Military Bill. 

As the star of Gen. D. M. Frost sank ingloriously 
below the horizon of Camp Jackson, that of Sterling 
Price rose above it to remain for four years the prin- 
cipal luminary in the Confederate firmament west of 
the Mississippi. 

Gen. Price was a remarkable instance of the in- 
definable quality of leadership. This is something 



THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT. 91 

that does not seem to depend upon intellectual su- 
periority, upon greater courage or devotion, or even 
upon clearer insight. A man leads his fellows — 
many of whom are his superiors in most namable 
qualities — simply because of something unnamable 
in him that makes him assume the leadership, and 
they accept it. There was hardly a prominent man 
in Missouri who was not Price's superior in some 
quality usually regarded as essential. For example, 
he was a pleasing and popular speaker, but Missouri 
abounded in men much more attractive to public as- 
semblages. He was a fair politician, but rarely got 
more than the second prize. He had distinguished 
himself in the Mexican War, but Claiborne Jackson 
made more capital out of his few weeks of inconse- 
quential service in the Black Hawk War than Price 
did out of the conquest of New Mexico and the cap- 
ture of Chihuahua. 

He served one term in Congress, but had failed to 
secure a renomination. He had been elected Gov- 
ernor of Missouri while his Mexican laurels were 
yet green, but when he tried to enter the Senate, he 
was easily defeated by that able politician and ora- 
tor, James S. Green. 

Though he belonged to the dominant Anti-Benton 
faction of the Missouri Democracy and the Stephen 
A. Douglas wing, he never was admitted to the select 
inner council, nor secured any of its higher rewards, 
except one term as Governor. 

At the outbreak of the war he was holding the 
comparatively unimportant place of Bank Commis- 
sioner. For all that, he was to become and remain \ 



92 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

throughout the struggle the central figure of Seces- 
sion in the trans-Mississippi country. 

Officers of high rank and brilliant reputation like 
Ben McCulloch, Earl Van Dorn, Richard Taylor and 
E. Kirby Smith were to be put over him, yet his fame 
and influence outshone them all. 

Unquestionably able soldiers such as Marmaduke, 
Shelby, Bowen, Jeff Thompson, Parsons, M. L. Clark 
and Little, were to serve him with unfaltering loy- 
alty as subordinates. 

The Secessionist leaders of Missouri, headed by 
Gov. Reynolds, were to denounce him for drunken- 
ness, crass incapacity, gross blundering, and a most 
shocking lack of discipline and organization. 

Very few commanding officers ever had so many 
defeats or so few successes. He was continually em- 
barking upon enterprises of the greatest promise 
and almost as continually having them come to 
naught ; generally through defeats inflicted by Union 
commanders of no special reputation. 

MAJ.-GEN. STERLING PRICE. 

Yet from first to last his was a name to conjure 
with. No other than his in the South had the spell 
in it for Missourians and the people west of the 
Mississippi. They flocked to his standard wherever 
it was raised, and after three years of failures they 
followed him with as much eager hope in his last 
disastrous campaign as in the first, and when he 
died in St. Louis, two years after the war, his death 
was regretted as a calamity to the State, and he had 
the largest funeral of any man in the history of 
Missouri. 



THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT. 93 

Sterling Price was born in 1809 in Prince Edward 
County, Va., of a family of no special prominence, 
and in 1831 settled upon a farm in Chariton County, 
Mo. He went into politics, was elected to the Legis- 
lature, and then to Congress for one term, after 
which he commanded a Missouri regiment in Doni- 
phan's famous march to the Southwest, where he 
showed great vigor and ability. He was a man of 
the finest physique and presence, six feet two inches 
high, with small hands and feet and unusually large 
body and limbs; a superb horseman; with a broad, 
bland, kindly face framed in snow-white hair and 
beard. His name would indicate Welsh origin, but 
his face, figure, and mental habits seemed rather 
Teutonic. He had a voice of much sweetness and 
strength, and a paternal way of addressing his men, 
who speedily gave him the sobriquet of "Pap 
Price." He appeared on the field in a straw hat and 
linen duster in the Summer, and with a blanket 
thrown over his shoulders and a tall hat in Winter. 
These became standards which the Missourians fol- 
lowed into the thick of the fight, as the French did 
the white plume of Henry of Navarre. 

He had been elected as a Union man to the Con- 
vention, which at once chose him for President, but 
his Unionism seemed to be a mere varnish easily 
scratched off by any act in favor of the Union. __ 

Thus, immediately after the occurrences in St. 
Louis, he went to the Governor with the remark that 
"the slaughter of the people of Missouri" in St. Louis 
had proved too much for him, and his sword was at 
the service of the State. 

It is significant of the way men were swayed in 



94 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

those days, that the murder of the German volun- 
teers patriotically rallying to the defense of the Ar- 
senal, and the murder and outrages upon the Union 
people throughout the State, did not affect Gen. Price 
at all, but he was moved to wrath by the shooting 
down of a few rioters. 

His going over was welcomed as a great victory 
by the Secessionists, offsetting the capture of Camp 
Jackson. Gov. Jackson promptly availed himself of 
the offer, and at once appointed Gen. Price Major- 
General in command of the forces of Missouri to be 
organized under the Military Bill. 

Though even to Gen. Harney's eyes the Military 
Bill was repugnant and he denounced it as direct Se- 
cession, the Governor proceeded with all speed to ex- 
ecute it. 

Each Congressional District in the State was made 
a Military Division. A Brigadier-General was ap- 
pointed to the command of each, and ordered to im- 
mediately proceed to the enrollment of the men in it 
who were fit for military duty, and to prepare them 
for active service. 

The able and witty Alexander W. Doniphan — 
"Xenophon" Doniphan of Mexican fame — who had 
made the astonishing march upon New Mexico and 
Chihuahua, was appointed to command one of the 
Divisions, but he was too much of a Union man, and 
declined. It was significant from the first that all 
the officers commissioned were more or less open Se- 
cessionists, and commissions were refused to some 
who sought them because they would not swear to 
make allegiance to Missouri paramount to that of 
the United States. 



THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT. 95 

As finally arranged the Divisions were command- 
ed as follows : 

First Division, M. Jeff Thompson. 

Second Division, Thos. A. Harris, 

Third Division, M. L. Clark. 

Fourth Division, Wm. Y. Slack. 

Fifth Division, A. E. Steen. 

Sixth Division, M. M. Parsons. 

Seventh Division, J. H. McBride. 

Eighth Division, Jas L. Rains. 

All of these were men of decided ability and stand- 
ing, and Parsons, M. L. Clark and Slack had served 
with credit in the Mexican War. Parsons became a 
Major-General in the Confederate army, and Clark, 
Slack, Steen and Rains Brigadier-Generals. 

A striking figure among them was M. Jeff Thomp- 
son, called the ''Missouri Swamp Fox" by his admir- 
ers, and who aspired to become the Francis Marion 
of the Southern Confederacy. He was a tail, lank, 
wiry man, at least six feet high, about 35 years old, 
with a thin, long, hatchet face, and high, sharp nose, 
blue eyes, and thick, yellow hair combed behind his 
ears. He wore a slouch white hat with feather and 
a bob-tailed coat, short pantaloons, and high rough 
boots. A white-handled bowie-knife, stuck perpen- 
dicularly in his belt in the middle of his back, com- 
pleted his armament, and he was never seen without 
it. His weakness was for writing poetry, and he 
"threw" a poem on the slightest provocation. For- 
tunately none of these has been preserved. 

Each Brigadier-General soon raised in his Divis- 
ion several regiments and battalions of infantry, 
troops of cavalry, and batteries of artillery, com- 



96 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

posed of very excellent material, for the young men 
of the Middle Class were persuaded that it was their 
duty to respond to the State's call to defend her. The 
strongest political, social and local influences were 
brought to bear to bring them into the ranks, and 
the Missouri State Guard was formed, which was to 
fight valorously against the Government on many 
bitterly contested fields. 

The White Trash, alv/ays impatient of the re- 
strains of law and organization, did not enter so 
largely into these forces, but remained outside, to 
form bands of bushwhackers and guerrillas, to harry 
Union men and curse the State with their depreda- 
tions, in which the Secessionists were scarcely more 
favored than the Union men. 

The influence of Gen. Scott and Attorney-General 
Bates, added to the passionate representations of the 
Gamble-Yeatman delegation, and the frantic tele- 
grams from Missouri, had restored Harney to full 
power, with Lyon, who had been commissioned a 
Brigadier-General of Volunteers, as his subordinate. 

Harney was exerting himself to the utmost to re- 
store peace and confidence in Missouri, and when 
free from the social influence of the Secessionists 
who surrounded him his soldierly instincts made him 
perceive that the emergency was greater than he had 
calculated upon. In one of these better moods he 
telegraphed to the Adjutant-General, May 17, that 
he ought to have 10,000 stand of arms placed at his 
disposal to arm the Union men of Missouri; that 
Iowa be called upon to send him 6,000, and Minne- 
sota 3,000 men. Then the Secessionists would get 
hold of him again, and induce another mood, such 




-AS^ 



GEN. FRANZ SIGEL 



THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT. 97 

as brought about a conference between him and Gov. 
Jackson and Gen. Price, leading to an agreement 
which Gen. Harney published in a proclamation. 
The agreement was as follows : 

Saint Louis, May 21, 1861. 

The undersigned, officers of the United States Government 
and of the Government of the State of Missouri, for the pur- 
pose of removing misapprehensions and allaying public ex- 
citement, deem it proper to declare publicly that they have 
this day had a personal interview in this city, in which it has 
been mutually understood, without the semblance of dissent 
on either part, that each of them has no other than a com- 
mon object equally interesting and important to every citizen 
of Missouri — that of restoring peace and good order to the 
people of the State in subordination to the laws of the General 
and State Governments. It being thus understood, there 
seems no reason why every citizen should not confide in the 
proper officers of the General and State Governments to re- 
store quiet, and, as among the best means of offering no 
counter-influences, we mutually recommend to all persons to 
respect each other's rights throughout the State, making no 
attempt to exercise unauthorized powers, as it is the deter- 
mination of the proper authorities to suppress all unlawful 
proceedings, which can only disturb the public peace. 

Gen. Price, having by commission full authority over the 
Militia of the State of Missouri, undertakes, with the sanc- 
tion of the Governor of the State, already declared, to direct 
the whole power of the State officers to maintain order with- 
in the State among the people thereof, and Gen. Harney pub- 
licly declares that, this object being thus assured, he can 
have no other occasion, as he has no wish, to make military 
movements, which might otherwise create excitements and 
jealousies which he most earnestly desires to avoid. 

We, the undersigned, do mutually enjoin upon the people 
of the State to attend to their civil business of whatever sort 
it may be, and it is to be hoped that the unquiet elements 
which have threatened so seriously to disturb the public peace 
may soon subside and be remembered only to be deplored. 

STERLING PRICE, 
Major-General Missouri State Guard. 
WILLIAM S. HARNEY, 
Brigadier-General Commanding. 

Harney was convinced of the sincerity of Jackson 
and Price in carrying out this agreement, which he 
submitted for approval to the War Department. 

F. P. Blair wrote to the Secretary of War urging 
that the four regiments assigned to Missouri for 



98 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

three years' service, which Lyon was to command, 
should not be officered by the Governor of Missouri, 
but that it would be better that they be nominated by 
Gen. Lyon, subject to the approval of the President, 
and he said: "The agreement between Harney and 
Gen. Price gives me great disgust and dissatisfac- 
tion to the Union men ; but I am in hopes we can get 
along with it, and think that Harney will insist on its 
execution to the fullest extent, in which case it will 
be satisfactory." 

In spite of Gen. Harney's faith, he was inundated 
with complaints from all parts of the State as to 
loyal citizens in great numbers being outraged, per- 
secuted, and driven from their homes. These com- 
plaints also reached the President, and Adjutant- 
General Thomas called Gen. Harney's attention to 
them in a strong letter May 27, in which he said: 
"The professions of loyalty to the Union by the State 
authorities of Missouri are not to be relied upon. 
They have already falsified their professions too 
often, and are too far committed to Secession to be 
entitled to your confidence, and you can only be sure 
of desisting from their wicked purposes when it is 
out of their power to prosecute them." 

Two days later Gen. Harney replied that the State 
was rapidly becoming tranquilized ; that he was con- 
vinced that his policy would soon restore peace and 
confidence in the ability of the Government to main- 
tain its authority. He asserted that the agreement 
between himself and Price was being carried out in 
good faith. At the same time he called the attention 
of Gen. Price to the reports that the Secessionists 
had seized 15,000 pounds of lead at Lebanon, a lot 



THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT. 99 

of powder elsewhere, had torn down the American 
Flag from several post offices, and hoisted Secession- 
ist flags in their places, and that troops and arms 
were coming into Missouri from Arkansas and else- 
where, etc., etc. Price replied that he was satisfied 
that the information was incorrect; that neither he 
nor the Governor knew of any arms or troops com- 
ing into the State from any quarter ; that he was dis- 
missing his troops, and that Gen. Harney had better 
not send out any force, as it would exasperate the 
people. 

Again Gen. Harney wrote Gen. Price reciting 
fresh acts of disloyalty and outrage, and saying that 
unless these ceased, he would feel justified in au- 
thorizing the organization of Home Guards among 
the Union men to protect themselves. Price replied 
at length opposing the organization of Home Guards 
as having a tendency to "excite those who now hold 
conservative peace positions into exactly the con- 
trary attitude, an example of which we have in St. 
Louis. It would undoubtedly, in my opinion, lead to 
neighborhood collision, the forerunner of civil war." 
Price finished by calling attention to his orders to 
all citizens to scrupulously protect property and 
rights, irrespective of political opinion, denying the 
reports which had reached Gen. Harney, and reit- 
erating that he was carrying out the agreement in 
good faith. 

Lyon, Blair and the other Unconditional Union 
leaders had become convinced of what they feared; 
to wit, that the agreement simply tied Harney's 
hands, and prevented any assertion of the Govern- 
ment's power to protect its citizens, while leaving 



100 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

the Secessionists free to do as they pleased and ma- 
ture their organization until they were ready to at- 
tack the Union men and sweep the State into Seces- 
sion. 

In spite of Gen. Scott and Attorney-General Bates, 
the Administration at Washington was rapidly com- 
ing to this conclusion, and sent a special messenger 
to St. Louis from Washington with dispatches to 
Col. Blair. In an envelope was found a notice from 
the War Department to Capt. Lyon that he had been 
appointed a Brigadier-General to rank from the 18th 
of May, and there was also an order relieving Gen. 
Harney from the command of the Department of the 
West, and granting him leave of absence until fur- 
ther orders. There was a private letter to Col. Blair 
in the handwriting of President Lincoln, in which 
he expressed his anxiety in regard to St. Louis and 
Gen. Harney's course. He was, however, a little in 
doubt as to the propriety of relieving him, but asked 
Col. Blair to hold the order until such time as in his 
judgment the necessity for such action became ur- 
gent. This for several reasons : 

We had better have him for a friend than an enemy. It 
will dissatisfy a good many who would otherwise remain 
quiet. More than all, we first relieved him, then restored 
him; now if we relieve him again the public will ask: "Why 
all this vacillation?" 

Col. Blair fully understood and sympathized with 
the President. He put the letter and order in hie 
pocket and talked confidentially to Lyon in regard 
to it. They decided not to publish the order until it 
v/ould be wicked to delay it. They both liked and 
admired Harney, and if he could be decisively sep- 
arated from his Secession environment, he could be 



THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT. 101 

of the greatest possible value. They would give him 
the opportunity of thoroughly testing his policy. 

Blair tried his best to arouse Gen. Harney to a 
sense of what was going on, and particularly to de- 
mand suspension of the execution of the Military 
Bill, but without effect. He sent to Gen. Harney tel- 
egrams and correspondence, showing that the Brig- 
adier-Generals were rapidly organizing their forces, 
that emissaries were stirring up the Indians, and 
that Chief Ross, of the Cherokee Nation, had prom- 
ised 15,000 well-armed men to help the Secessionists. 
When Harney called Price's attention to this, Price 
calmly pooh-poohed it all as of no consequence. 

Therefore, on May 30, Blair decided that the emer- 
gency for the delivery of the order had come, and 
sent it to Gen. Harney, and at the same time wrote 
to the President in explanation of what he had done. 

Gen. Harney wrote the Adjutant-General of the 
Army a pathetic letter, in which he said : 

My confidence in the honor and integrity of Gen. Price, in 
the purity of his motives, and in his loyalty to the Govern- 
ment, remains unimpaired. His course as President of the 
State Convention that voted by a large majority against sub- 
mitting an Ordinance of Secession, and his efforts since that 
time to calm the elements of discord, have served to confirm, 
the high opinion of him I have for many years entertained. 

My whole course as Commander of the Department of the 
West has been dictated by a desire to carry out in good faith 
the instructions of my Government, regardless of the clamor 
of the conflicting elements surrounding me, and whose ad- 
vice and dictation could not be followed without involving the 
State in blood and the Government in the unnecessary ex- 
penditure of millions. Under the course I pursued Missouri 
was secured to the Union, and the triumph of the Govern- 
ment was only the more glorious, being almost a bloodless 
victory; but those who clamored for blood have not ceased 
to impugn my motives. Twice within a brief space of time 
have I been relieved from the command here; the second 
time in a manner that has inflicted unmerited disgrace upon 
a true and loyal soldier. During a long life, dedicated to my 
country, I have seen some service, and more than once I have 
held her honor in my hands; and during that time my loyalty. 



102 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

I believe, was never questioned; and now, when in the natural 
course of things I shall, before the lapse of many years, lay 
aside the sword which has so long served my country, my 
countrymen will be slow to believe that I have chosen this 
portion of my career to damn with treason my life, which is 
so soon to become a record of the past, and which I shall 
most willingly leave to the unbiased judgment of posterity. 
I trust that I may yet be spared to do my country some fur- 
ther service that will testify to the love I bear her, and that 
the vigor of my arm may never relax while there is a blow 
to be struck in her defense. 

I respectfully ask to be assigned to the command of the 
Department of California, and I doubt not the present com- 
mander of the Division is even now anxious to serve on the 
Atlantic frontier. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WM. S. HARNEY, 
Brigadier-General, U. S. Army. 

He started for Washington, but the train on which 
he was going was captured at Harper's Ferry by a 
Secession force, and he was taken a prisoner to Rich- 
mond, where the authorities immediately ordered his 
release. 

The Government made no further use of him ; he 
was retired in 1863 as a Brigadier-General. At the 
conclusion of the struggle, in which he took no fur- 
ther part, he was brevetted a Major-General, and 
died in the fullness of years May 9, 1889, at his home 
at Pass Christian, Miss. 

Once more Gen. Lyon was in the saddle, this time 
for good, with Frank Blair and the Radicals massed 
behind him. 



CHAPTER VI. 

BRIG.-GEN. NATHANIEL LYON was now in 
full command, not only of the City of St. 
Louis and the State of Missouri, but of all 
the vast territory lying between the Mississippi and 
the Rocky Mountains, except Texas, New Mexico, 
and Utah. 

His sudden elevation from a simple Captain head- 
ing a company to wide command did not for an in- 
stant dizzy him as it seemed to McClellan and Fre- 
mont, who had made similar leaps in rank. Where 
McClellan surrounded himself with all the pomp and 
circumstance of glorious war as he had seen it ex- 
emplified by officers of his rank in Europe, where he 
was followed at all times by a numerous and glitter- 
ing staff, resplendent with military millinery; and 
where Fremont set up a vice-regal court, in which 
were heard nearly all the tongues of the Continent, 
spoken by pretentious adventurers who claimed ser- 
vice in substantially every war since those of Na- 
poleon, and under every possible flag raised in those 
wars, Lyon did not change a particle from the plain, 
straightforward, earnest soldier he had always been. 
His common dress was the private soldier's blouse 
with the single star of his rank, and a slouch hat. 
He was accoutered for the real work of war, not its 
spectacular effects. Grant was not simpler than he. 
Dominated by a great purpose, he made himself and 
every one and every thing about him tend directly 

103 



104 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

towards that focus. He had only enough of a staff 
to do the necessary work, and they must be plain, 
matter-of-fact soldiers like himself, devoting their 
energies through all their waking hours to the cause 
he had at heart. 

His first Chief of Staff was Chester Harding, a 
Massachusetts man, a thoroughgoing, practical, bus- 
inesslike Yankee, animated by intense love of the 
Union. He preferred, however, service in the field, 
and became Colonel of the 10th Mo., then of the 25th, 
and later of the 43d Mo., doing good service wherever 
placed, and receiving at the last a well-earned brevet 
as Brigadier-General of Volunteers. 

While Gen. Lyon was organizing the Home Guards 
into volunteer regiments at the Arsenal, there came 
to his assistance a rather stockily-built First Lieu- 
tenant of the Regular Army, who was in the prime 
of manhood, with broad, full face and well-developed 
and increasing baldness, a graduate of West Point, 
and of some eight years' experience in the military 
establishment. 

John McAllister Schofield was born in Illinois, the 
son of an itinerant Baptist preacher, who mainly 
devoted himself to the cause of church extension. 
Schofield's name would indicate Germanic extrac- 
tion. His face and figure supports the same theory, 
as do most of his mental habits. The McAllister in 
his name hints at an infusion of Celtic blood, of 
which we find few if any intellectual traces. With- 
out any special enthusiasm or public demonstration 
of his attachment to principle, with a great deal of 
the courtier in his ways, he was yet firm, courageous 
and persistent in the policy he had marked out for 



THE LAST WORD BEFORE THE BLOW. 105 

himself. He was true to the Union cause, in his own 
way, from the time he offered his services to Gen. 
Lyon, was obedient and helpful to his superiors, 
always did more than respectably well what was 
committed to his charge, and no failure of any kind 
lowers the high average of his performance. 

When after four years of the most careful scrutiny 
and tutelage the Military Academy at West Point 
graduates a young man, it assumes that it has abso- 
lutely determined his X — that is, has sounded and 
measured his moral and intellectual depth, and set- 
tled his place in any human equation. 

It will, therefore, be quite interesting in making 
our estimate of Gen. Schofield, to examine the label 
attached to him upon his graduation from West 
Point in the class of 1853. 

At the head of that class was the brilliant James 
B. McPherson, who was to rise to the command of a 
corps and then to the Army of the Tennessee, and 
fall before Atlanta, to the intense sorrow of every 
man in the army who had come in contact with him. 

The second in the class was William P. Craighill, 
a fine engineer officer, who, however, rose no higher 
during the war than a brevet Colonel. 

The third in the class was Joshua W. Sill, a splen- 
did soldier, who died at the head of his brigade on 
the banks of Stone River. 

The fourth in the class was William R. Boggs, a 
Georgian, who became a Brigadier-General in the 
Confederate army and achieved no special distinc- 
tion. 

The fifth in the class was Francis J. Shunk, of 



106 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Pennsylvania, who went into the ordnance and be- 
came a brevet Major. 

The sixth in the class was William Sooy Smith, an 
Ohio man, who attained the rank of Brigadier-Gen- 
eral, and who achieved prominence in civil life as an 
engineer. 

The seventh in the class was John M. Schofield, 
who vv^as commissioned in the artillery, and who had 
had some years of army experience in the forts along 
the South Atlantic coast. 

In the 45 who graduated below Schofield were 
many names afterwards to become very prominent 
. in history. 

John S. Bowen, of Georgia, who commanded a 
regiment of the Home Guards, and who did his ut- 
most to drag his State into Secession, afterward be- 
coming a Major-General in the Confederate army, 
graduated 13th in the class. 

William R. Terrill, of Virginia, killed at Perry- 
ville while in command of a Union brigade, was the 
16th. 

John R. Chambliss, of Virginia, who was killed 
while commanding a Confederate brigade at Deep 
Bottom, Va., was the 31st, and William McE. Dye, 
who commanded a brigade with success in the Trans- 
Mississippi, afterwards helped to organize the Khe- 
dive's army, and who died while in command of the 
Korean army, was the 32d. 

Philip H. Sheridan, one of the most brilliant com- 
manders the world ever saw, stood 34th in the class, 
and Elmer Otis, of Philippine fame, was the 37th. 

John B. Hood, who rose to the rank of a full Gen- 
eral in the Confederate army, and commanded the 



THE LAST WORD BEFORE THE BLOW. 107 

forces arrayed against Sherman and Thomas at 
Atlanta and Nashville, was the 44th. 

It is very interesting to study this list and com- 
pare it with the confident markings made by the 
West Point Faculty when the young men were dis- 
missed to the active life for which the Academy had 
prepared them. It at least shows that, judged by 
West Point standards, Schofield's intellectual equip- 
ment was of the very best. He had married the 
daughter of his Professor of Physics, and children 
had come to them ; promotion was very slow ; he had 
wearied of the dull routine of the artillery officer in 
seacoast forts, and had seriously thought of resign- 
ing and entering the profession of law. Friends had 
dissuaded him from this, secured him a position as 
Professor of Physics in the Washington University 
at St. Louis, and Gen. Scott, who liked him, induced 
him to remain in the service and obtained for him 
a year's leave of absence to enable him to accept the 
professorship. He was engaged in his duty of teach- 
ing at the University and of writing a work on phys- 
ics, of which he was very proud, when the firing on 
Fort Sumter took place. His political views were 
those of the Douglas wing of the Democracy, and he 
remained a Democrat ever after. He made no 
public profession of his views on the Slavery ques- 
tion or Secession, but immediately wrote to Wash- 
ington offering to cancel his leave of absence, and 
was directed to report to Gen. Lyon for the duty of 
mustering in the volunteers. 

Inasmuch as the Governor, with much contumely, 
had refused to supply the four regiments from Mis- 
souri which the President had called for, Schofield, 



108 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

with his unfailing respect for the law, saw no way 
to fulfill his duty, until Gen. Scott, who was dimly 
perceiving the gigantic nature of the emergency, re- 
luctantly gave authority to muster in and arm the 
Home Guards, adding the indorsement, pathetically 
eloquent as to his aged slowness of recognition that 
old things were passing away and new being born 
in volcanic travail — "This is irregular, but, being 
times of revolution, is approved." 

Schofield showed his heart in the matter by be- 
coming a Major of the first regiment organized. 

The whole atmosphere at once changed with 
Lyon's permanent assignment to command. 

The Union people of Missouri, those who really 
believed that the Government was worth fighting 
for, no longer had to retire, as they had from Har- 
ney's presence, with cold comfort, and advice to stop 
thinking about fighting and attend to their regular 
business, but were welcomed by Lyon, had their 
earnestness stimulated by his own, and were given 
direct advice as to how they could be of the most 
service. They were encouraged to put themselves 
in readiness, strike blow for blow, and if possible to 
give two blows for one. The work of preparation 
was systematized, and everything made to move to- 
ward the one great event — the Government's over- 
whelming assertion of its power. 

Home Guards were organized in every County 
where Union men wanted to do so, and began pre- 
senting a stubborn front to their opponents, who 
were being brought together under the Military Bill. 

Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price did not lose all heart 
at the change in commanders. They seemed to have 



THE LAST WORD BEFORE THE BLOW. 109 

hopes that they might in some way mold Lyon to 
their wishes as they had Harney, and sought an in- 
terview with him. Gen. Lyon was not averse to 
an interview, and sent to Jackson and Price the 
following passport: 

Headquarters, Department of the West, 

St. Louis, June 8, 1861. 

It having been suggested that Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson 
and ex-Gov. Sterling Price are desirous of an interview with 
Gen. Lyon, commanding this Department, for the purpose of 
effecting, if possible, a pacific solution of the domestic trou- 
bles of Missouri, it is hereby stipulated on the part of Brig.- 
Gen. N. Lyon, U. S. A., commanding this Military Depart- 
ment, that, should Gov. Jackson or ex-Gov. Price, or either 
of them, at any time prior to or on the 12th day of June, 1861, 
visit St. Louis for the purpose of such interview, they and 
each of them shall be free froin molestation or arrest on ac- 
count of any charges pending against them, or either of them, 
on the part of the United States, during their journey to St. 
Louis and their return from St. Louis to Jefferson City. 

Given under the hand of the General commanding, the day 
and year above written. N. LYON, 

Brigadier-General, Commanding. 

Accordingly on June 12, 1861, Price and Jackson 
arrived at St. Louis by special train from Jefferson 
City, put up at the Planters' House, and informed 
Gen. Lyon of their arrival. The old State pride 
cropped out in a little dispute as to which should call 
upon the other. Jackson as Governor of the "sover- 
eign and independent" State of Missouri and Price 
as Major-General commanding the forces, felt that 
it was due them that Lyon, a Brigadier-General in 
the United States service, should visit them rather 
than they him at the Arsenal. Lyon's soul going di- 
rect to the heart of the matter, was above these tech- 
nicalities, waved them aside impatiently, and said 
that he would go to the Planters' House and call on 
them. 

Accompanied by Col. Frank P. Blair and Maj. 
Conant, of his Staff, he went at once to the Planters' 



110 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

House, and there ensued a four hours' interview of 
mightiest consequences to the State and the Nation. 

Jackson and Price were accompanied by Col. 
Thomas L. Snead, then an Aid of the Governor, af- 
terwards Acting Adjutant-General of the Missouri 
State Guards, Chief of Staff of the Army of the 
West, and a member of the Confederate Congress. 
He makes this statement as to the opening of the 
conference : 

"Lyon opened it by saying that the discussion on 
the part of his Government 'would be conducted by 
Col. Blair, who enjoyed its confidence in the very 
highest degree, and was authorized to speak for it.' 
Blair was, in fact, better fitted than any man in the 
Union to discuss with Jackson and Price the grave 
questions then at issue between the United States 
and the State of Missouri, and in all her borders 
there were no men better fitted than they to speak 
for Missouri on that momentous occasion. 

"But despite the modesty of his opening, Lyon was 
too much in earnest, too zealous, too well informed 
on the subject, too aggressive, and too fond of dis- 
putation to let Blair conduct the discussion on the 
part of his Government. In half an hour it was he 
who was conducting it, holding his own at every 
point against Jackson and Price, masters though 
they were of Missouri politics, whose course they 
had been directing and controlling for years, while 
he was only the Captain of an infantry regiment on 
the Plains. He had not, however, been a mere sol- 
dier in those days, but had been an earnest student 
of the very questions that he was now discussing, 
and he comprehended the matter as well as any man, 



THE LAST WORD BEFORE THE BLOW. Ill 

and handled it in the soldierly way to which he had 
been bred, using the sword to cut knots that he could 
not untie." 

Really the interview soon became a parley be- 
tween the two strong men who were quickly to draw 
their swords upon one another. The talking men, 
the men of discussion and appeal passed out, and the 
issue w^as in the hands of the men who were soon to 
hurl the mighty weapons of war. 

Jackson, who was a light, facile politician, used 
to moving public assemblies which were already of 
his mind, had but little to say in the hours of in- 
tense parley, but interjected from time to time with 
parrot-like reiteration, that the United States troops 
must leave the State and not enter it. "I will then 
disband my own troops and we shall certainly have 
peace." 

Blair, an incomparably stronger man, but still a 
politician and rather accustomed to accomplishing 
results by speeches and arguments, soon felt himself 
obscured by the mightier grasp and earnestness of 
Lyon, and took little further part. There remained, 
then, the stern, portentous parley between Lyon and 
Price, who weighed their words, intending to make 
every one of them good by deadly blows. They 
looked into one another's eyes with set wills, between 
which were the awful consequences of unsheathed 
swords. 

Gen. Price stated at some length his proposals, 
and claimed that he had carried out his understand- 
ing with Gen. Harney in good faith, not violating it 
one iota. 

Gen. Lyon asked him sharply how that could be, 



112 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

according to Gen. Harney's second proclamation in 
which he denounced the Military Bill as unconstitu- 
tional and treasonable ? 

Gen. Price replied that he had made no agreement 
v/hatever with Gen. Harney about the enforcement 
or carrying out of the Military Bill. 

Gen. Lyon answered this by presenting a copy of 
the following memorandum which had been sent by 
Gen. Harney as the only basis on which he would 
treat with Jackson and Price: 

Memorandum for Gen. Price. — May 21, 1861. 

Gen. Harney is here as a citizen of Missouri, with all his 
interests at stake in the preservation of the peace of the 
State. 

He earnestly wishes to do nothing to complicate matters, 
and will do everything in his power, consistently with his in- 
structions, to preserve peace and order. 

He is, however, compelled to recognize the existence of a 
rebellion in a portion of the United States, and in view of it 
he stands upon the proclamation of the President itself, based 
upon the laws and Constitution of the United States. 

The proclamation demands the dispersion of all armed 
bodies hostile to the supreme law of the land. 

Gen. Harney sees in the Missouri Military Bill features 
which compel him to look upon such armed bodies as may 
be organized under its provisions as antagonistic to the United 
States, within the meaning of the proclamation, and calcu- 
lated to precipitate a conflict between the State and the 
United States. 

He laments the tendency of things, and most cordially and 
earnestly invites the co-operation of Gen. Price to avert it. 

For this purpose Gen. Harney respectfully asks Gen. Price 
to review the features of the bill, in the spirit of law, warmed 
and elevated by that of humanity, and seek to discover some 
means by which its action may be suspended until some com- 
petent tribunal shall decide upon its character. 

The most material features of the bill calculated to bring 
about a conflict are, first, the oath required to be taken by 
the Militia and State Guards (an oath of allegiance to the 
State of Missouri without recognizing the existence of the 
Government of the United States) ; and, secondly, the ex- 
press requireinents by which troops within the State not or- 
ganized under the provisions of the Military Bill are to be 
disarmed by the State Guards. 

Gen. Harney cannot be expected to await a summons to 
surrender his arms by the State troops. 

From this statement of the case the true question becomes 
immediately visible and cannot be shut out of view. 




GEN. DAVID HUNTER 



THE LAST WORD BEFORE THE BLOW. 113 

Gen. Price is earnestly requested to consider this, and Gen. 
Harney will be happy to confer with him on the subject when- 
ever it may suit his convenience. 

N. B. — Read to Gen. Price, in the presence of MaJ. H. S. 
Turner, on the evening of the 21st of May. 

Naturally this threw Gen. Price into much con- 
fusion, and his face reddened with mortification, but 
after a few minutes he said that he did not remem- 
ber hearing the paper read; that it was true that 
Hitchcock and Turner had come from Gen. Harney 
to see him, but he could recall nothing of any such 
paper being presented. The discussion grew warmer 
as Gen. Lyon felt more strongly the force of his 
position. Gen. Price insisted that no armed bodies 
of Union troops should pass through or be stationed 
in Missouri, as such would occasion civil war. He 
asserted that Missouri must be neutral, and neither 
side should arm. Gov. Jackson would protect the 
Union men and would disband his State troops. 

Gen. Lyon opposed this by saying, in effect, "that, 
if the Government withdrew its forces entirely, se- 
cret and subtle measures would be resorted to to 
provide arms and perfect organizations which, upon 
any pretext, could put forth a formidable opposition 
to the General Government ; and even without arm- 
ing, combinations would doubtless form in certain 
localities, to oppress and drive out loyal citizens, to 
whom the Government was bound to give protection, 
but which it would be helpless to do, as also to re- 
press such combinations, if its forces could not be 
sent into the State. A large aggressive force might 
be formed and advanced from the exterior into the 
State, to assist it in carrying out the Secession prov 
gram ; and the Government could not, under the limi- 
tation proposed, take posts on these borders to meet 



114 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

and repel such force. The Government could not 
shrink from its duties nor abdicate its corresponding 
right ; and, in addition to the above, it was the duty 
of its civil officers to execute civil process, and in 
case of resistance to receive the support of military 
force. The proposition of the Governor would at 
once overturn the Government privileges and pre- 
rogatives, which he (Gen. Lyon) had neither the 
wish nor the authority to do. In his opinion, if the 
Governor and the State authorities would earnestly 
set about to maintain the peace of the State, and de- 
clare their purposes to resist outrages upon loyal 
citizens of the Government, and repress insurrec- 
tions against it, and in case of violent combinations, 
needing co-operation of the United States troops, 
they should call upon or accept such assistance, and 
in case of threatened invasion the Government 
troops took suitable posts to meet it, the purposes 
of the Government would be subserved, and no in- 
fringement of the State rights or dignity committed. 
He would take good care, in such faithful co-opera- 
tion of the State authorities to this end, that no in- 
dividual should be injured in person or property, 
and that the utmost delicacy should be observed to- 
ward all peaceable persons concerned in these rela- 
tions." 

Gen. Lyon based himself unalterably upon this 
proposition, and could not be moved from it by any- 
thing Price or Jackson could say. 

Gov. Jackson entered into the discussion again to 
suggest that they separate and continue the confer- 
ence further by correspondence; but Lyon, who felt 
vividly that the main object of the Secessionists was 



THE LAST WORD BEFORE THE BLOW. 115 

to gain time to perfect their plans, rejected this 
proposition, but said that he was quite willing that 
all those present should reduce their views to writ- 
ing and publish them ; which, however, did not strike 
Jackson and Price favorably. As to the close of the 
interview, Maj. Conant says: 

"As Gen. Lyon was about to take his leave, he 
said : 'Gov. Jackson, no man in the State of Missouri 
has been more ardently desirous of preserving peace 
than myself. Heretofore Missouri has only felt the 
fostering care of the Federal Government, which has 
raised her from the condition of a feeble French 
colony to that of an empire State. Now, however, 
from the failure on the part of the Chief Executive 
to comply with constitutional requirements, I fear 
she will be made to feel its power. Better, sir, far 
better, that the blood of every man, woman and child 
of the State should flow than that she should suc- 
cessfully defy the Federal Government.' " 

Col. Snead has published this account of the close 
of the conference : 

"Finally, when the conference had lasted four or 
five hours, Lyon closed it, as he had opened it. 
'Rather,' said he (he was still seated, and spoke de- 
liberately, slowly, and with a peculiar emphasis), 
'rather than concede to the State of Missouri the 
right to demand that my Government shall not en- 
list troops within her limits, or bring troops into the 
State whenever it pleases, or move its troops at its 
own will into, out of, or through the State; rather 
than concede to the State of Missouri for one single 
instant the right to dictate to my Government in any 
matter however unimportant, I would (rising as he 



116 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

said this, and pointing in turn to every one in the 
room) see you, and you, and you, and you, and every 
man, woman, and child in the State, dead and 
buried.' 

"Then turning to the Governor, he said: 'This 
means war. In an hour one of my officers will call 
for you and conduct you out of my lines.' 

"And then, without another word, without an in- 
clination of the head, without even a look, he turned 
upon his heel and strode out of the room, rattling 
his spurs and clanking his saber, while we, whom 
he left, and who had known each other for years, 
bade farewell to each other courteously and kindly, 
and separated — Blair and Conant to fight for the 
Union, we for the land of our birth." 

When the great American painter shall arise, one 
of the grandest themes for his pencil will be that 
destiny-shaping conference on that afternoon in 
June, 1861. He will show the face of Gov. Jackson 
as typical of that class of Southern politicians who 
raised the storm from the unexpected violence of 
which they retreated in dismay. There will be more 
than a suggestion of this in Jackson's expression 
and attitude. He entered the conference full of his 
official importance as the head of the great Sovereign 
State, braving the whole United States, and quite 
complacent as to his own powers of diction and ar- 
gument. He quickly subsided, however, from the 
leading character occupying the center of the stage 
to that of chorus in the wings, in the deadly grapple 
of men of mightier purpose — ^Lyon and Price, who 
were to ride the whirlwind he had been contriving, 



THE LAST WORD BEFORE THE BLOW. 117 

and rule the storm he had been instrumental in 
raising. 

Even Blair, immeasurably stronger mentally and 
morally than Jackson — Blair, tall, sinewy, alert, with 
face and pose revealing the ideal leader that he was 
— even he felt the presence of stronger geniuses, 
and lapsed into silence. 

The time for talking men was past. Captains of 
hosts were now uttering the last stem words, which 
meant the crash of battle and the death and misery 
of myriads. Hereafter voices would be in swords, 
and arguments flame from the brazen mouths of can- 
non hot with slaughter. 

Sterling Price, white-haired, large of frame, im- 
posing, benignant, paternal, inflexible as to what he 
considered principle, was to point the way which 
100,000 young Missourians were to follow through 
a thousand red battlefields. 

Nathaniel Lyon, short of stature, red-haired, in 
the prime of manhood and perfected soldiership, 
fiery, jealous for his country's rights and dignity, 
was to set another 100,000 young Missourians in 
battle array against their opponents, to fight them 
to complete overthrow. 

After they withdrew from the conference, Gov. 
Jackson, as Price's trumpeter, sounded the call "to 
arms" in a proclamation to the people of Missouri. 



CHAPTER VII. 

GEN. STERLING PRICE was soldier enough to 
recognize that Gen. Lyon was a different char- 
acter from the talking men who had been hold- 
ing the center of the stage for so long. When his 
trumpet sounded his sword was sure to leap from its 
scabbard. Blows were to follow so quickly upon 
words as to tread upon their heels. 

At the close of the interview of June 11, Gen. 
Lyon, with Col. Blair and Maj. Conant, returned to 
the Arsenal, while Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price hur- 
ried to the depot of the Pacific Railroad, where they 
impressed a locomotive, tender and cars, and urged 
the railroad men to get up steam in the shortest 
possible time. Imperative orders cleared the track 
ahead of them, and they rushed away for the Capi- 
tal of the State with all speed. 

At the crossing of the Gasconade River they 
stopped long enough to thoroughly burn the bridge 
to check Lyon's certain advance, and while doing 
this Sterling Price cut the telegraph wires with his 
own hands. The train then ran on to the Osage 
River, where, to give greater assurance against 
rapid pursuit, they burnt that bridge also. 

Arriving at Jefferson City about 2 o'clock in the 
morning, the rest of the night was spent in anxious 
preparation of a proclamation by the Governor to 
the people of Missouri, which was intended to be a 
trumpet call to bring every man capable of bearing 

118 



GEN. LYON BEGINS AN EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN. 119 

arms at once to the support of the Governor and the 
furtherance of his plans. 

According to the Census of 1860 there were 236,- 
402 men in Missouri capable of bearing arms, and 
if the matter could be put in such a way that a half 
or even one-third of these would respond to the Gov- 
ernor's mandate, a host would be mustered which 
would quickly sweep Lyon and his small band out 
of the State. The proclamation to effect this which 
was elaborated by the joint efforts of Gov. Jackson 
and Col. Snead, the editor of the St. Louis Bulletin, 
a Secessionist organ, and the Governor's Secretary 
and Adjutant-General, together with Gen. Price. 

Considered as a trumpet call it was entirely too 
verbose. Col. Snead could not break himself of writ- 
ing long, ponderous editorials. The more pertinent 
paragraphs were : 

To the People of Missouri: 

A series of unprovoked and unparaUeled outrages have 
been inflicted upon the peace and dignity of this Common- 
wealth and upon the rights and liberties of its people, by 
wicked and unprincipled men, professing to act under the 
authority of the United States Government. The solemn en- 
actments of your Legislature have been nullified; your vol- 
unteer soldiers have been taken prisoners; your commerce 
with your sister States has been suspended; your trade with 
your fellow-citizens has been, and is, subjected to the harass- 
ing control of an armed soldiery; peaceful citizens have been 
imprisoned without warrant of law; unoffending and defense- 
less men, women, and children have been ruthlessly shot 
down and murdered; and other unbearable indignities have 
been heaped upon your State and yourselves. 

***»*♦* 

They (Blair and Lyon) demanded not only the disorganiza- 
tion and disarming of the State Militia, and the nullification 
of the Military Bill, but they refused to disarm their own 
Home Guards, and insisted that the Federal Government 
should enjoy an unrestricted right to move and station its 
troops throughout the State, whenever and wherever that 
might, in the opinion of its officers, be necessary, either for 
the protection of the "loyal subjects" of the Federal Govern- 
ment or for the repelling of invasion; and they plainly an- 
nounced that It was the Intention of the Adminiatratioa to 



120 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

take military occupation, under tliese pretexts, of the whole 
State, and to reduce it, as avowed by Gen. Lyon himself, to 
the "exact condition of Maryland." The acceptance by me of 
these degrading terms would not only have sullied the honor 
of Missouri, but would have aroused the indignation of every 
brave citizen, and precipitated the very conflict which it has 
been my aim to prevent. We refused to accede to them, and 
the conference was broken up. 

******* 

Now, therefore, I, C. F. Jackson, Governor of the State 
of Missouri, do, in view of the foregoing facts, and by virtue 
of the power invested in me by the Constitution and laws of 
this Commonwealth, issue this, my proclamation, calling the 
Militia of the State, to the number of 50,000, into the active 
service of the State, for the purpose of repelling said invasion, 
and for the protection of the lives, liberty, and property of 
the citizens of this State. And I earnestly exhort all good 
citizens of Missouri to rally under the flag of their State, for 
the protection of their endangered homes and firesides, and 
for the defense of their most sacred rights and dearest lib- 
erties. 

This proclamation was given out to the press, but 
even before it appeared the Governor had tele- 
graphed throughout the State to leading Secession- 
ists to arm and rush to his assistance. 

This did not catch Gen. Lyon at all unawares. He 
had long ago determined upon a movement to Spring- 
field, which, being in the midst of the farming re- 
gion, was the center of the Union element of south- 
west Missouri. Immediately, upon reading the Gov- 
ernor's proclamation, he saw the necessity of fore- 
stalling the projected concentration by reaching Jef- 
ferson City with the least possible delay. Before he 
retired that night he had given orders for the forma- 
tion of a marching column, and had placed the af- 
fairs of his great Department outside of this col- 
umn, of which he proposed to take personal com- 
mand, in the hands of Col. Chester Harding, to 
v/hom he gave full powers to sign his name and issue 
orders. 



GEN. LYON BEGINS AN EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN. 121 

Having thought out his plans well beforehand, 
Gen. Lyon began his campaign with well-ordered 
celerity. Part of the troops he had at command 
were sent down the southwestern branch of the 
Pacific Railroad to secure it. Others were sent to 
points at which the militia were known to be gather- 
ing to disperse them. 

Gen. Lyon himself, with his staff, the Regulars, 
infantry and artillery, and a force of volunteers, 
embarked on two steamboats to move directly upon 
Jefferson City by the way of the Missouri River. 

They arrived at the Capital of Missouri about 2 
o'clock in the afternoon of June 15, and were met 
M'ith an enthusiastic reception from the loyal citi- 
zens, of whom a large proportion were Germans. 
Gov. Jackson had only been able to assemble about 
120 men, with whom he made a hasty retreat to 
Boonville, about 50 miles further up the river, which 
had been selected by Gen. Price as one of his prin- 
cipal strategic points. Boonville is situated on the 
highlands at a natural crossing of the Missouri, and 
by holding it communication could be maintained 
between the parts of the State lying north and south 
of the river, and thus allow the concentration of the 
Militia, which Gov. Jackson had called out. The 
hights on the river bank would enable the river to 
be blockaded against expeditions ascending it, and 
the entire length of the stream to Kansas City, about 
100 miles in a direct line, could be thus controlled. 

The Missouri River divides the State unequally, 
leaving about one-third on the north and two-thirds 
on the south. Of the 99 Counties in the State, 44 are 



122 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

north of the Missouri River, but these are smaller 
than those south. 

Gov. Jackson had telegraphed orders for the Bri- 
gade-Generals commanding the districts into which 
the State had been divided to concentrate their men 
with all haste at Boonville and at Lexington, still 
further up the river, nearly midway between Boon- 
ville and Kansas City. The beginnings of an arsenal 
were made at Boonville, to furnish arms and ammu- 
nition. 

Gen. Lyon saw the strategic importance of the 
place, and did not propose to allow any concentration 
to be made there. He did not, as most Regular 
officers were prone, wait deliberately for wagons 
and rations and other supplies, but with a truer in- 
stinct of soldiership comprehended that his men 
could live wherever an enemy could, and leaving a 
small squad at Jefferson City, immediately started 
his column for Boonville, sending orders to other 
columns in Iowa and Kansas to converge toward 
that place. 

Progress up the Missouri River was tedious, as 
the water was low, and the troops had to frequently 
disembark in order to allow the boats to go over the 
shoals. It was reported to Gen. Lyon that about 
4,000 Confederates had already concentrated at 
Boonville. 

While Gen. Price was the Commander-in-Chief, 
several prominent Secessionists were commanders 
upon the field of the whole or parts of the force. 
The man, however, who was the most in evidence in 
the fighting was John Sappington Marmaduke, a 
native Missourian, born in Saline County in 1833, 



GEN. LYON BEGINS AN EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN. 123 

and therefore 28 years old. He was the son of a 
farmer, had been at Yale and Harvard, and then 
graduated from West Point in 1857, standing 30 in 
a class of 38. He had been on frontier duty with the 
7th U. S. until after the firing on Fort Sumter, when 
he resigned to return to Missouri and raise a regi- 
ment for the Southern Confederacy. He was to rise 
to the rank of Major-General in the Confederate 
army, achieve much fame for military ability, and 
be elected, in 1884, Governor of the State. 

The column immediately under the command of 
Gen. Lyon consisted of Totten's Light Battery (F, 
2d U. S. Art.) ; Co. B, 2d U. S.; two companies of 
Regular recruits; Col. Blair's Missouri regiment^ 
and nine companies of Boernstein's Missouri regi- 
ment; aggregating somewhere between 1,700 and 
2,000 men. On the evening of Sunday, June 16, the 
boats carrying the command arrived within 15 miles 
of Boonville, and lay there during the night. The 
next morning they proceeded up to within about 
eight miles of the town, when all but one company 
of Blair's regiment and an artillery detachment dis- 
embarked and began a land march upon the enemy's 
position. The remaining company and the howitzer 
were sent on with the boats to give the impression 
that an attack was to be made from the river side. 

The people in the country reported to Gen. Lyon 
that the enemy was fully 4,000 strong, and intended 
an obstinate defense. He therefore moved forward 
cautiously, arriving at last at the foot of a gently 
undulating slope to a crest one mile distant, on which 
the enemy was stationed, with the ground quite fav- 
orable for them. Gen. Lyon formed a line of battle 



124 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

about 300 yards from the crest, with Totten's bat- 
tery in the rear and nine companies of Boernstein's 
regiment on the right, under the command of Lieut.- 
Col. Schaeffer, and the Regulars and Col. Blair's 
regiment on the left. It was a momentous period, 
big with Missouri's future. 

The engagement opened with Capt. Totten shell- 
ing the enemy's position and the well-drilled Ger- 
man infantry advancing with the Regulars, firing as 
they went. The question was now to be tried as to 
the value of the much-vaunted Missouri riflemen in 
conflict with the disciplined Germans. The former 
had been led to believe that they would repeat the 
achievements of their forefathers at New Orleans. 

Under the lead of Col. Marmaduke, the Confeder- 
ates stood their ground pluckily for a few minutes, 
but the steady advance of the Union troops, with the 
demoralizing effect of the shells, were too much for 
them. Col. Marmaduke attempted to make an or- 
derly retreat, and at first seemed to succeed, but 
finally the movement degenerated into a rout, and 
the Confederates scattered in wild flight, led by their 
Governor, who, like James II. at the battle of the 
Boyne, had witnessed the skirmish from a neigh- 
boring eminence. The losses on each side were equal 
— two killed and some eight or nine wounded. 

Lyon pushed on at once to the camp of the enemy, 
and there captured some 1,200 pairs of shoes, 20 to 30 
tents, and a considerable quantity of ammunition, 
with quite a supply of arms, blankets and personal 
effects. 

The detachment which had gone by the river on 
the boats aided in securing the victory by a noisy 



GEN. LYON BEGINS AN EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN. 125 

bombardment with their howitzer, and landing at 
the town, captured two six-pounders, with a num- 
ber of prisoners. The Mayor of Boonville came out 
and formally surrendered the town to Gen. Lyon 
and Col. Blair. Parties were sent out the various 
roads to continue the pursuit, and Gen. Lyon issued 
the following proclamation, admirable in tone and 
wording, to counteract that of the Governor and 
quiet the people, especially as to interference with 
slave property : 

To the People of Missouri: 

Upon leaving the city of St. Louis, in consequence of the 
declaration of war made by the Governor of this State against 
the Government of the United States, because I would not 
assume in its behalf to relinquish its duties and abdicate its 
rights of protecting loyal citizens from the oppression and 
cruelties of Secessionists in this State, I published an address 
to the people, in which I declared my intention to use the 
force under my command for no other purpose than the 
maintenance of the authority of the General Government 
and the protection of the rights and property of all law- 
abiding citizens. The State authorities, in violation of an 
agreement with Gen. Harney, on the 21st of May last, had 
drawn together and organized upon a large scale the means of 
warfare, and having made declaration of war, they abandoned 
the Capital, issued orders for the destruction of the railroad 
and telegraph lines, and proceeded to this point to put in 
execution their purposes toward the General Government. 
This devolved upon me the necessity of meeting this issue to 
the best of my ability, and accordingly I moved to this point 
with a portion of the force under my command, attacked and 
dispersed hostile forces gathered here by the Governor, and 
took possession of the camp equipage left and a considerable 
number of prisoners, most of them young and of immature 
age, who represent that they have been misled by frauds 
ingeniously devised and industriously circulated by designing 
leaders, who seek to devolve upon unreflecting and deluded 
followers the task of securing the object of their own false 
ambition. Out of compassion for these misguided youths, and 
to correct impressions created by unscrupulous calumniators, 
I have liberated them, upon condition that they will not serve 
in the impending hostilities against the United States Gov- 
ernment. I have done this in spite of the known facts that 
the leaders in the present rebellion, having long experienced 
the mildness of the General Government, still feel confident 
that this mildness cannot be overtaxed even by factious hos- 
tilities having in view its overthrow; but if, as in the case of 
the late Camp Jackson affair, this clemency shall still be 



126 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

misconstrued, it is proper to give warning that the Govern- 
ment cannot be always expected to indulge it to the com- 
promise of its evident wellfare. 

Having learned that those plotting against the Govern- 
ment have falsely represented that the Government troops 
intended a forcible and violent invasion of Missouri for the 
purposes of military despotism and tyranny, I hereby give 
notice to the people of this State that I shall scrupulously 
avoid all interferences with the business, rights, and property 
of every description recognized by the laws of this State, and 
belonging to law-abiding citizens; but that it is equally my 
duty to maintain the paramount authority of the United 
Sates with such force as I have at my command, which will be 
retained only so long as opposition shall make it necessary; 
and that it is my wish, and shall be my purpose, to devolve 
any unavoidable rigor arising in this issue upon those only 
who provoke it. 

All persons who, under the misapprehensions above men- 
tioned, have taken up arms, or who are now preparing to do 
so, are invited to return to their homes, and relinquish their 
hostile attitude to the General Government, and are assured 
that they may do so without being molested for past occur- 
rences. N. LiYON, 

Brigadier-General, U. S. Vols., Commanding. 

Several thousand of Jackson's Militia had already 
assembled at Lexington, nearly midway between 
Boonville and Kansas City. When they heard of 
the affair at Boonville they realized that they were 
in danger of being caught between the column ad- 
vancing from that direction and the one under Maj. 
Sturgis, which Gen. Lyon had ordered forward from 
Leavenworth through Kansas City, while a third, 
under Col. Curtis, was approaching from the Iowa 
line. They dispersed at once, to fall back behind 
the Osage River, at Gen. Price's direction. Thus 
Lyon gained complete control of the Missouri River 
in its course through the State, enabling him to cut 
off the Confederates in the northern from those in 
the southern part of the State. 

Another success which came to him was the seiz- 
ure of the office of the St. Louis Bulletin, and the 
discovery there of a letter from Gov. Jackson to the 



GEN. LYON BEGINS AN EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN. 127 

publisher, which completely proved all the allegations 
that had been made as to the Governor's action, deci- 
sively contradicted the material assertions in his 
proclamations and vindicated Gen. Lyon from the 
charges against him of undue precipitancy. The let- 
ter was long, personal and confidential. In it he said : 

I do not think Missouri should secede today or tomorrow, 
but I do not think it good policy that I should so disclose. I 
want a little time to arm the State, and I am assuming every 
responsibility to do it with all possible dispatch. Missouri 
should act in concert with Tennessee and Kentucky. They 
are all bound to go out, and should go together, if possible. 
My judgment is that North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas 
will all be out in a few days, and when they go Missouri 
should follow. Let us, then, prepare to make our exit. We 
should keep our own counsels. Every man in the State is in 
favor of arming the State. Then let it be done. All are op- 
posed to furnishing Mr. Lincoln with soldiers. Time will 
settle the balance. 

Nothing should be said about the time or the manner in 
which Missouri should go out. That she ought to go, and 
will go at the proper time, I have no doubt. She ought to 
have gone out last Winter, when she could have seized the 
public arms and public property, and defended herself. That 
she has failed to do, and must wait a little while. Paschall 
is a base submissionist, and desires to remain with the North, 
if every Slave State should go out. Call on every country 
paper to defend me, and assure them I am fighting under the 
true flag. Who does not know that every sympathy of my 
heart is with the South? The Legislature, in my view, should 
sit in secret session, and touch nothing but the measures of 
defense. 

Though in point of fighting and losses this initial 
campaign ending with the skirmish at Boonville had 
been insignificant, its results far surpassed those of 
many of the bloodiest battles of the rebellion. The 
Governor of the State was in flight from his Capital ; 
his troops had been scattered in the first collision; 
control had been gained of the Missouri River, cut- 
ting the enemy's line in two; and above all, there 
was the immense moral effect of the defeat in action 
of the boastful Secessionists by the much denounced 
"St. Louis Dutch." This alone accounted for the ac- 



128 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

quisition of many thousand wavering men to the 
side of the Union. Missourians were not different 
from the rest of mankind, and every community had 
its large proportion of those who, when the Seces- 
sionists seemed to have everything their own way, 
inclined to that side, but came back to their true 
allegiance at the first sign of the Government being 
able to assert its supremacy. The Government was 
now aroused and striking — and striking success- 
fully. Its enemies were immensely depressed, and 
its friends correspondingly elated. 

Gen. Lyon's next thought was to drive Gov. Jack- 
son and his Secession clique out of Missouri into Ar- 
kansas, free the people from their pernicious influ- 
ence, protect the Union people, especially in the 
southwestern part of the State, and keep tens of 
thousands of young men from being persuaded or 
dragged into the rebel army. 

He would demonstrate the Government's power 
so convincingly that there would be no longer any 
doubt of Missouri's remaining in the Union. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

THE Osage River enters Mis- 
souri from Kansas about 60 
miles south of the Missouri 
River, and flowing a little 
south of east empties into that 
river a few miles below Jeffer- 
son City. It thus forms a 
natural line of defense across 

LIKK OP THB OSAGE, ^^^ g^^^^^ ^J^J^J^ Q^^^ PriCe'S 

soldierly eye had noted, and he 
advised the Governor to order his troops to take up 
their position behind it, gain time for organization, 
and prepare for battle for possession of the State. 

Gen. Lyon had also noticed the strategic advan- 
tages of the Osage River, and did not propose to 
allow his enemies to have the benefit of them. He 
did not intend to permit them to concentrate there, 
and be joined in time by heavy forces already coming 
up from Arkansas, Indian Territory, and Texas. 
While he was collecting farm wagons around Boon- 
ville to move his own columns forward, laboring to 
gather a sufllcient stock of ammunition and sup- 
plies, and planning to make secure his holding of 
the important points already gained, he began mov- 
ing other columns under Gen. Sweeny and Maj. Stur- 
gis directly upon Springfield, the central point of the 
southwestern part of the State, which would take 
the Osage line in the rear, and compel Jackson and 

129 



130 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Price to retreat with their forces across the Missouri 
line into Arkansas. This would clear the State of 
the whole congerie of Secession leaders, remove the 
young men from their influence, stop the persecu- 
tions of the Union men in that section, and cement 
Missouri solidly in the Union line. He also wrote 
Gen. B. M. Prentiss, in command of the troops at 
Cairo, asking co-operation by clearing out the rebels 
from the southeastern portion of the State. Lyon's 
far-reaching plans did not stop with Missouri. He 
also contemplated pushing his advance directly upon 
Little Rock, through the Union-loving region in 
northwestern Arkansas, and clinching that State as 
firmly as Missouri. 

The next day after the decisive little victory at 
Boonville occurred an event which greatly raised the 
drooping spirits of the Secessionists, and was much 
exaggerated by them in order to offset their defeat 
at Boonville by Lyon. 

Benton is one of the interior Counties of the State, 
lying on both sides of the Osage River. In 1860 its 
people had cast 74 votes for Lincoln, 306 for Bell 
and Everett, 100 for Breckinridge, and 574 for 
Stephen A. Douglas. All the County officials and 
leading men were Secessionists, and doing their ut- 
most to aid the rebellion ; still, the Union people, un- 
der the leadership of A. H. W. Cook and Alex. 
Mackey, were undaunted and earnestly desirous of 
doing effective service for the United States. Cook 
and Mackey had been warned to leave the State, and 
Cook had done so, but returned to take part in the 
capture of Camp Jackson, and afterward went back 
to his home to organize the Germans and Americans 



STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI. 131 

there for their own defense. A meeting was held at 
which the Stars and Stripes were raised, and nine 
companies of Home Guards organized, sworn into 
service, and given arms. These companies went 
into camp in a couple of barns some three miles south 
of Cole Camp, where their presence and support to 
the Union sentiment was the source of the greatest 
irritation to the Secessionists, who attempted to dis- 
perse them by legal processes, and failing in this, 
determined to attack them. In the meanwhile all 
but about 400 of the men were allowed to return to 
their homes to put their affairs in order for a pro- 
longed absence. 

About 1,000 Secessionists, under the command of 
Walter S. O'Kane, marched on June 19 to attack 
them. Col. Cook was informed of the intended at- 
tack and prepared for it by throwing out pickets 
and summoning his absentees. 

At 3 o'clock in the morning of June 20 the Seces- 
sionists reached the pickets, whom they bayonetted 
to prevent their giving the alarm, and rushed in 
upon the sleeping Unionists, pouring volley after 
volley into the barns. The men in one of the barns 
had been warned, but were prevented from firing 
by the Union Flag which the Secessionists carried. 
Many of them who managed to get out of the barns 
were rallied behind the corn cribs, and began an ob- 
stinate fight which lasted till daylight. The ab- 
sentees, whom Col. Cook had summoned, came up 
during the engagement, but not being able to com- 
prehend the situation, rendered no assistance. Fin- 
ally all the Union men got together and retreated in 
good order, repulsing their pursuers. 



132 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

The reports as to this affair are so conflicting that 
it is difficult to determine the truth. It seems pretty 
certain that Col. Cook had only about 400 men. He 
reports that he was attacked by 1,200, but the Seces- 
sionists say that O'Kane's force was only 350. Cook 
reports his loss as 23 killed, 20 wounded, and 30 
taken prisoners, while Pollard, the Secessionist his- 
torian, insists that we lost 206 killed, a large num- 
ber wounded, and over 100 taken prisoners, with 
the Secession loss of 14 killed and 15 or 20 wounded. 
Probably the truth lies between these two extremes, 
the only definite thing being that the Secessionists 
captured 362 muskets. 

There were five or six prominent Secessionists 
among the killed, one of them being Mr. Leach, the 
editor of the Southwestern Democrat. 

Col. Cook gathered up his men, received some ad- 
ditional recruits, some arms and ammunition, and 
pushed on to Warsaw, on the Osage, one of the points 
of concentration indicated by Gen. Price, capturing 
1,500 pound cans and 1,500 kegs of fine rifle powder, 
many tons of pig-lead, 70 stand of small-arms, a 
steamboat-load of tent cloth, a lot of State Guard 
uniforms, four Confederate flags, and 1,200 false- 
faces which had been used by the "border ruffians" 
in their political operations in Kansas. A little 
further on they surrounded and captured 1,000 Se- 
cessionists, and paroled them on the spot. 

The Secessionists, on the other hand, took much 
comfort out of the surprise and defeat and the ac- 
quisition of 362 new muskets and 150 more which 
they had beguiled from a German company in a, 
neighboring County. 



STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI. 133 

In the meanwhile the Conservatives, aided by 
Lieut.-Gen. Scott, whose distrust of "Capt." Lyon 
never abated, secured the addition of Missouri to 
the Department commanded by McClellan, whom it 
was thought would hold the "audacious" officer in 
cheek. Lyon, though he felt that McClellan, then 
far distant in West Virginia, could not give matters 
in the State the attention they needed, yet loyally 
accepted the assignment, wrote at once to McClellan 
cordially welcoming him as his commander, and giv- 
ing full information as to the conditions, with sug- 
gestions as to what should be done. Col. Blair and 
the Radicals were much displeased at this move, and 
began eiforts to have Missouri erected into a separ- 
ate Department and placed under the command of 
John C. Fremont, lately appointed a Major-General, 
and from whose military talents there were the 
greatest expectations. 

As the first Presidential candidate of the Republi- 
can Party Fremont had a strong hold upon the hearts 
of the Northern people. During the campaign of 
1856 there had been the customary partisan eulogies 
of the candidates, which placed "the Great Path- 
finder" and all he had done in the most favorable 
light before the American people. Above all he was 
thought to be thoroughly in sympathy with the pol- 
icy which Blair and his following desired to pursue. 

In reality Fremont was a man of somewhat more 
than moderate ability, but boundless aspirations. 
He was the son-in-law of Senator Benton, and his 
wife, the queenly, ambitious, handsome Jessie Ben- 
ton Fremont, was naturally eager for her husband 
to be as prominent in the National councils as had 



134 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

been her father. What Fremont was equal to is one 
of the many unsolved problems of the war, but cer- 
tainly he was not to the command of the great West- 
ern Department, including the State of Illinois and 
all the States and Territories west of the Mississippi 
River and east of the Rocky Mountains, to which he 
was assigned by General Orders, No. 40, issued July 
8, 1861. 

Fremont's father was a Frenchman, who had mar- 
ried a Virginia woman, and followed the occupation 
of a teacher of French at Norfolk, Va., but died at 
an early age, leaving the members of his family to 
struggle for themselves. Fremont became a teacher 
of mathematics on a sloop of war, then Professor of 
Mathematics for the Navy, and later a surveyor and 
engineer for railroad lines, and was commissioned 
by President Van Buren a Second Lieutenant in the 
Corps of Engineers. Owing to the opposition of 
Senator Benton, his daughter had to be secretly 
married to Lieut. Fremont in 1841, but soon after 
the Senator gave his son-in-law the benefit of his 
great influence. 

Fremont was designated to conduct surveys across 
the continent into the unknown region lying be- 
tween the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, and 
made several very important explorations. He was 
in California prior to the outbreak of the Mexican 
War, and became involved in hostilities with the 
Mexicans. When the war did break out he assumed 
command of the country around under authority 
from Commodore Stockton, and proceeded to de- 
clare the independence of California. A quarrel be- 
tween him and Stockton followed, and later another 



STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI. 185 

quarrel ensued with Gen. Kearny, who had been sent 
into this country in command of an expedition. He 
was court-martialed by Gen. Kearny's orders and 
found guilty of mutiny, disobedience, and conduct 
prejudicial to good order and military discipline. He 
was sentenced to be dismissed, but the majority of 
the court recommended him to the clemency of Pres- 
ident Polk, who refused to approve the verdict of 
mutiny, but did approve the rest, though he remitted 
the penalty. Fremont, refusing to accept the Presi- 
dent's pardon, then resigned from the Army, settled 
in California, and bought the famous Mariposa es- 
tate, containing rich gold mines. He became a leader 
of the Free-Soil Party in California, and was elected 
to the Senate for a brief term of three weeks. He 
was nominated by the first Republican Convention 
in Philadelphia, June 17, 1856, and in his letter of 
acceptance expressed himself strongly against the 
extension of Slavery, and in favor of free labor. 
The hot campaign of 1856 resulted in a surprising 
showing of strength by the new party. Fremont 
received 114 electoral votes from 11 States to 174 
from 19 States for Buchanan and eight votes from 
Maryland for Fillmore. The popular vote was 874,- 
000 for Fillmore, 1,341,000 for Fremont, and 1,838,- 
000 for Buchanan. 

Lyon welcomed the appointment of Fremont to 
command, because he felt the need of having a su- 
perior officer at hand who would appreciate the ur- 
gency of the situation, and stand between him and 
the authorities at Washington, who apparently did 
not understand the emergency, were not honoring 
his requisitions for money, arms, and supplies, and 



186 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

who were drawing to the eastward the troops that 
Lyon felt ought to be sent to him. It was also sat- 
isfactory to him that the State of Illinois was in the 
Department, since the important point of Cairo 
should be administered with reference to controlling 
the situation in southeastern Missouri. 

The first distrust of Fremont came from his de- 
liberation in repairing to his command. The people 
of Missouri felt very keenly that no time should be 
lost in the General arriving on the spot and getting 
the situation in hand, but in spite of all importuni- 
ties, Fremont lingered for weeks in New York, and 
it required a rather sharp admonition from the War 
Department to start him for St. Louis, where he ar- 
rived as late as July 25. 

Lyon's prompt advance upon Jefferson City now 
bore fruit in another direction. The Union people 
of Missouri decided that as Gov. Jackson, Lieut.-Gov. 
Reynolds and other State officials had abandoned 
the State Capital to engage in active rebellion against 
the United States, the State Convention, which had 
been called to carry the State out of the Union, but 
v/hich had so signally disappointed the expectations 
of its originators, should reconvene, declare the State 
offices vacant, and instate a loyal Government. A 
strong party desired that a Military Governor 
should be appointed, and urged Col. Frank P. Blair 
for that place, but he refused to countenance the 
project. The Convention, by a vote of 56 to 25, de- 
clared the offices of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor 
and Secretary of State vacant, and elected Hamilton 
R. Gamble Governor, Willard P. Hall Lieutenant- 
Governor, Mordecai Oliver Secretary of State, and 



STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI. 137 

George A. Bingham Treasurer. An oath of loyalty 
was adopted to be required of all citizens before be- 
ing allowed to vote, and to be taken by all incum- 
bents of office and all who should be qualified for 
office thereafter. 

Gov. Jackson established his Capital at Lamar, in 
Barton County, about 30 miles south of the Osage, 
and the men who had been appointed to command 
the Militia Districts began to come in with their 
contingents. None seemed to know about the flank- 
ing columns which had been sent out toward Spring- 
field, to take the line of the Osage in the rear, and 
they were astounded when forces under Sweeny and 
Sigel, which had dispersed the gathering Militia be- 
fore them at Rolla, Lebanon, and other intervening 
points, reached Springfield, and began sending out 
from there expeditions to Neosho, Ozark, Sarcoxie 
and other towns in the southwestern corner. Col. 
Franz Sigel, who had shown much activity and en- 
terprise, learned at Sarcoxie that several divisions 
of State Guards under Gens. Rains, Parsons, Slack 
and Clark were to the north of him, and the Gov- 
ernor and Gen. Price were endeavoring to bring 
them together in order to turn upon and crush Gen. 
Lyon in his advance from Boonville. Sigel's men, 
who were anxious to accomplish something decisive 
before the expiration of their three months' term, 
brought about a decision in their commander's mind 
to march upon the force encamped upon Pool's Prai- 
rie, whip and scatter it, and then attack the other 
forces in turn. 

After making the necessary detachments to guard 
his flanks and rear, Col. Sigel had under his com- 



138 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

mand nine companies of the 3d Mo., 550 men under 
Lieut.-Col. Hassendeubel ; seven companies of the 
5th Mo., under Col. Charles E. Salomon, 400 men, 
and two batteries of light artillery, four guns each, 
under Maj. Backof. 

After a hard day's march of 22 miles in very hot 
weather, Col. Sigel came, on the evening of July 4, 
about one mile southeast of Carthage, on the south 
side of Spring River. He made preparations to at- 
tack the enemy, reported to be from 10 to 15 miles in 
his front. 

That night Gov. Jackson received news of Sigel's 
advance, and gathered his forces to resist him. He 
had already concentrated many more men than Sigel 
had expected, and had with him seven pieces of ar- 
tillery. Most of his men carried the arms which 
they had brought from home, and were arranged, 
according to the provisions in the Military Bill, into 
divisions, of which there were no less than four pres- 
ent. The Second Division, commanded by Brig.-Gen. 
James S. Rains, who afterward attained much rep- 
utation in the Confederate army, had present 1,203 
infantry and artillery and 608 cavalry. The Third 
Division, commanded by Gen. John B. Clark, also to 
attain eminence in the Confederate army, had 365 
present. The Fourth Division, commanded by Gen. 
Wm. Y. Slack, later a Brigadier-General in the Con- 
federate army, had 500 cavalry and 700 infantry. 
The Sixth Division, commanded by Gen. Monroe M. 
Parsons, who served with distinction throughout the 
v/ar, had altogether about 1,000 men and four pieces 
of artillery. The official returns show that Gov. 
Jackson had thus 4,375 men with seven guns to op- 



STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI. 139 

pose something over 1,000 men with eight guns un- 
der Col. Sigel. The Union force was strong in ar- 
tillery, while the Confederates were powerful in cav- 
alry, of which the Unionists had none. Both sides 
were poorly supplied with ammunition, especially 
for the cannon, and loaded these with railroad 
spikes, bits of trace chains, etc. 

Early on the morning of July 5 Sigel marched out 
of camp, crossing the Spring River about one mile 
north of Carthage, and soon came upon an open 
prairie. He advanced slowly and cautiously along 
the Lamar Road, with his wagons under a small es- 
cort following a mile or so in the rear. Nine miles 
north of Carthage and three miles north of Coon 
Creek he came in sight of the Governor's troops 
drawn up in line of battle on a slight rise of the 
prairie, and about one mile and a half away. The 
enemy's skirmish line, which was under the command 
of Capt. J. 0. Shelby, of whom we shall hear much 
more later, opened fire on Sigel's advance, but was 
soon driven across the creek and through the narrow 
strip of timber less than one-half mile wide, fol- 
lowed by Sigel's men in line of battle. They came 
out on the smooth prairie, covered with a fine growth 
of grass, and offering unequalled facilities for 
manuvering, except that from the ridge Sigel's line 
could be accurately observed and its numbers known. 

Sigel formed his line of battle within a half mile 
of the enemy's position, distributed his artillery along 
it, then ordered an advance, and opened the battle 
with a fire from his guns, which was promptly re- 
sponded to by the enemy's pieces. The distance was so 
close that the Union guns could fire canister and 



140 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

shell very effectively ; but the enemy, perceiving that 
Sigel had no cavalry, sent out their numerous 
mounted force on a flank movement, which soon com- 
pelled the retirement of the line across the creek, 
vvhere the battle was renewed and maintained for 
two hours, during which time the enemy suffered 
some loss from the artillery fire. Again the enemy 
made a flank movement with their cavalry, reaching 
this time back toward the baggage-train, to which 
Sigel retreated. The Union men broke up the cav- 
alry formation, and Sigel followed this with a charge 
which scattered his enemies and enabled him to con- 
tinue his retreat unmolested across the prairie in 
full sight of his foes. Sigel could also see the rallied 
cavalry making a wide circuit over the prairie to 
gain the hights of Spring River and cut off his re- 
treat. Gen. Rains, who led this movement, succeed- 
ed in reaching the road at Spring River, but in com- 
ing up Sigel at once attacked with his artillery, and 
after a brisk little engagement of half an hour drove 
the enemy out of the woods, and marched on to Car- 
thage, which he reached about 5 o'clock, and there 
prepared to give a short rest to his men, who were 
worn out by 18 miles of marching under a hot sun 
and almost continual fighting and manuvering. The 
Secessionists renewed their attack, but were again 
driven off by the infantry and artillery, and the 
march was resumed. 

Again Gens. Slack, Parsons, and Clark pushed 
their men forward on the Union flank, while Rains 
renewed his attack, and again they were all re- 
pulsed, largely by the skillful handling of the artil- 
lery. As darkness came on the Secessionists disap- 



STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI. 141 



peared, but Sigel moved on to Sarcoxie, 12 miles dis- 
tant, and went into camp. 

Gov. Jackson's forces camped in and around Car- 
thage, and the next day marched to Neosho, where 
they met Gen. Ben McCulloch coming up from Ar- 
kansas with a force of Arkansans and Texans and 
also 1,700 of the State Guards, which Gen. Price had 
brought forward. In the fighting the Union side had 
lost 13 killed and 21 wounded. The Confederates 




Sigel Crossing the Osagk. 



report 74 killed and wounded in the four divisions 
under the command of Gov. Jackson. 

The battle of Carthage produced a great sensation 
over the country, the Confederates rejoicing that 
they had cut through the Union line and forced it to 
retreat, while Sigel received unstinted praise for his 
skillful retreat and the masterly handling of his ar- 
tillery. While one battery would hold the enemy in 
check, another would be placed at the most advan- 



142 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

tageous position in the rear, where it would with- 
draw behind it to repeat the manuver. Several times 
during the day the batteries were cunningly masked, 
and the enemy rushed up to the muzzle, to receive 
the death-dealing discharge full in the faces of the 
compact mass. 

This brings Gen. Sigel prominently before us. Of 
the many highly-educated Germans who had migrated 
to this country in consequence of their connection 
with the Revolution of 1848, Franz Sigel had, far 
and away, the most brilliant reputation as a soldier. 
A slight, dark, nervous man, with a rather saturnine 
countenance, he was born at Zinsheim, Baden, Nov. 
18, 1824, and was therefore in his 37th year. He 
graduated from the Military School at Carlsruhe 
with high promise, which he filled by becoming one 
of the Chief Adjutants in the Grand Duke's army. 
He ardently shared the aspirations of the young 
Germans for German Unity, and resigned his com- 
mission in 1847 to becom.e one of the leaders in the 
revolutionary forces. He was appointed to chief 
command of the army sent from the Grand-Duchy 
to the assistance of the revolutionists in Hesse- 
Darmstadt, but a disagreement arose, another was 
appointed to the command, and Sigel assumed the 
position of Minister of War. Upon the defeat of the 
expedition by the Prussian forces, he resumed the 
chief command of the demoralized men, and con- 
ducted a brilliantly successful retreat to a place of 
safety in the fortress of Rastadt. This achievement 
at the age of 24 seemed to stamp the character of 
his military career. 

At the collapse of the revolution he escaped to 



STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI. 143 

Switzerland, which expelled him, and he then came 
to New York, where he supported himself as a 
teacher of mathematics, later engaging in the same 
occupation in St. Louis, where he was living when 
the war broke out, and rendered invaluable service 
in organizing and leading the Germans in support of 
Blair and Lyon. 

Unfortunately for his reputation, the war upon 
Vv^hich he had now entered was to be carried on by 
stern aggressiveness, to which he seemed unsuited. 
He had a strong hold on the affections of the Ger- 
mans, whose support of the Union was exceedingly 
valuable, and in spite of repeated failures to satisfy 
the expectations of his superior officers, he was pro- 
moted and given high commands, in all of which his 
misfortune was the same. After Rastadt he seemed 
bent only upon conducting brilliant retreats, and 
that from Carthage greatly helped to confirm this 
tendency. He was finally relegated to the shelf, 
w^hich contained so many men who had started out 
with brilliant promise, and died in New York in 
1902, supported during his later years by a pension 
of $100 a month granted him by Congress. 

After resting his men a few hours at Sarcoxie, 
Sigel marched on to Springfield, where Gen. Sweeny 
was, and to which point Gen. Lyon hurried with all 
the force he could gather, to forestall the junction of 
Gen. Ben McCulloch's Arkansas column with the 
force that Price and Jackson would bring to him. 

There was strong need of his presence there and 
of his utmost efforts. He had rolled back the Seces- 
sion tide only to have it gather volume enough to 
completely submerge him. Not only had Gov. Jack- 



144 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

son and Sterling Price concentrated many more men 
than he had, but a still stronger column composed of 
Arkansans and Texans under the noted Gen. Ben. 
McCulloch was near at hand and pushing forward 
with all speed. 

Benjamin McCulloch, a tall, bony, sinewy man of 
iron will and dauntless courage, was easily a leader 
and master of the bold, aggressive spirits who had 
wrested Texas away from Mexico and erected her 
into a great State. He had achieved much reputa- 
tion in the command of the Texan Rangers during 
the Mexican War and in the Indian fights which 
succeeded that struggle. As a soldier and a fighter 
he had the highest fame of any living Texan, except 
Sam Houston, and when he espoused the cause of 
Secession he drew after him many thousands of the 
adventurous, daring young men of the State. The 
Confederate army had immediately commissioned 
him a Brigadier-General, and he had set about or- 
ganizing, with his accustomed energy and enter- 
prise, a strong column for aggressive service west 
of the Mississippi. Warlike young leaders, ambi- 
tious for distinction, hastened to join him with what- 
ever men they could raise, for such was their con- 
fidence that they felt his banner would point to the 
most direct road to fame and glory. Many of these, 
then Captains and Colonels, afterward rose to be 
Generals in the Confederate army. He had pro- 
l)osed to the Confederate Government to aid the sit- 
uation in Virginia by active operations in Missouri, 
and to this plan the Governors of Louisiana, Texas, 
and Arkansas gave their hearty consent and co-oper- 
ation. McCulloch had another motive for aggres- 




GEN. HENRY W. HALLECK 



STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI. 145 

sive action, as it would determine the position of the 
Indians. The wisest among the Chiefs of the Chero- 
kees, Chickasaws, Creeks and Seminoles desired to 
remain neutral in the struggle, since they did not 
wish to bring down upon them the wrath of the Kan- 
sas people, who were within easy striking distance. 
By prompt action these wavering aborigines could 
be brought into the Confederate ranks and be made 
to render important assistance. 

He had already crossed the Missouri line with 
3,000 mounted men, and on the night of the 4th of 
July came to Buffalo Creek, 12 miles southwest of 
Neosho, where he was joined by Gen. Price with 
1,700 mounted men, and he sent urgent messages 
back to the rest of his men to hurry forward to him. 
These were so well obeyed that he shortly had, inde- 
pendent of Price's men, fully 5,000 men from Ar- 
kansas, Texas, and Louisiana, who were better 
equipt and organized than the Missourians. 

Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price also sent urgent mes- 
sages for concentration, which were as promptly re- 
sponded to. The result was that there were shortly 
assembled Confederates under Gen. McCuUoch and 
"State Guards" under Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price, 
a total estimated by Maj. Sturgis and others at 23,- 
000 men. For lack of proper arms and organization, 
many of these were not very effective. McCulloch 
says that the great horde of mounted men "were 
much in the way," and hindered rather than helped. 
But they were certainly very effective in harrying 
the Union people ; in impressing recruits ; in embar- 
rassing Lyon's gathering of supplies; in driving in 



146 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

the small parties he sent out, and confining his opei*- 
ations to the neighborhood of Springfield. 

In the meanwhile the great disaster of Bull Run 
had occurred to depress the Union people and fill 
the Secessionists with unbounded enthusiasm and 
confidence. The thoughts of the Government and of 
the loyal people of the country became concentrated 
upon securing the safety of Washington. Troops 
were being rushed from every part of the country to 
the National Capital. Lyon's forces were constantly 
dwindling, from the expiration of the three months 
for which the regiments had been enlisted. The men 
felt the need of their presence at home, to attend to 
their hastily-left affairs, and could see no prospect 
of a decisive battle as a reason for remaining. Gen. 
L-yon importuned Gen. Fremont and the War De- 
partment for some regiments, for adequate supplies 
for those he had, and money with which to pay them. 
The War Department, however, could apparently 
think of nothing else than making Washington safe, 
while Gen. Fremont, deeming St. Louis and Cairo 
all-important, gathered in what troops he could save 
from the eastward rush, for holding those places. 
Gen. Scott even proposed to deprive Gen. Lyon of his 
little squad of Regulars, and sent orders for seven 
companies to be forwarded East. 

Laboring with all these embarrassments. Gen. 
Lyon confronted the storm rising before him with a 
firm countenance. 



CHAPTER IX. 

MOUNTAINOUS perplexities and burdens 
weighed upon Gen. Lyon during the last 
days of July. 

The country was hysterical over the safety of the 
National Capital, and it seemed that the Administra- 
tion -was equally emotional. Every regiment and 
gun was being rushed to the heights in front of 
Washington, and all eyes were fixed on the line of 
the Potomac. 

The perennial adventurer in Gen. Fremont did 
not fail to suggest to him that the greatest of oppor- 
tunities might develop in Washington, and he lin- 
gered in New York until peremptorily ordered by 
Gen. Scott to his command. He did not arrive in 
St. Louis until July 25. 

Like Seward, Chase, McClellan, and many other 
aspiring men, Fremont had little confidence that the 
untrained Illinois Rail Splitter in the Presidential 
chair would be able to keep his head above the waves 
in the sea of troubles the country had entered. The 
disaster at Bull Run was but the beginning of a 
series of catastrophes which would soon call for a 
stronger brain and a more experienced hand at the 
helm. 

Then? 

Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont was not the only one 
to suggest that the man for the hour would be found 

147 



148 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

to be the first Republican candidate for President — . 
the Great Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains ! 

Upon his arrival at St. Louis Gen. Fremont was 
immediately waited upon by the faithful Chester 
Harding and others who had been awaiting his com- 
ing with painful anxiety. They represented most 
energetically Gen. Lyon's predicament, without 
money, clothing or rations, and with a force even 
more rapidly diminishing than that of the enemy 
was augmenting. They revealed Gen. Lyon's far- 
reaching plans of making Springfield a base from 
which to carry the war into Arkansas, and begged 
for men, money, arms, food, shoes and clothing for 
him. 

Fremont was too much engrossed in forming in 
the Brant Mansion that vice-regal court of his — the 
main requirement for which seemed to be inability 
to speak English — to feel the urgency of these im- 
portunities. 

The country was swarming with military adven- 
turers from Europe, men with more or less shadow 
on their connection with the foreign armies, and 
eager to sell their swords to the highest advantage. 
They swarmed around Fremont like bees around a 
sugar barrel, much to the detriment of the honest 
and earnest men of foreign birth who were rallying 
to the support of the Union. 

Next to his satrapal court of exotic manners and 
speech, Fremont was most concerned about the safe- 
ty of Cairo, 111., a most important point, then noisily 
threatened by Ma j. -Gen, Leonidas Polk, the militant 
Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana, and his 



EVE OF THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 149 

subordinate, the blatant Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, of 
Mexican War notoriety. 

Gen. Fremont made quite a show of reinforcing 
Cairo, sending a most imposing fleet of steamboats 
to carry the 4,000 troops sent thither. 

Pretense still counted for much in the war. Later 
it burnt up like dry straw in the fierce blaze of ac- 
tualities. 

Not being Fremont's own, nor contributing par- 
ticularly to his aggrandizement. Gen. Lyon's plans 
and aims had little importance to his Commanding 
General. 

Gen. Lyon saw clearly that the place to fight for 
St. Louis and Missouri was in the neighborhood of 
Springfield, and by messenger and letter he impor- 
tuned that St. Louis be left to the care of the loyal 
Germans of the Home Guards, who had shown their 
ability to handle the city, and that all the other 
troops there and elsewhere in the State be rushed 
forward to him, with shoes and clothing for his un- 
shod, ragged soldiers, and suflficient rations for the 
army, which had well-nigh exhausted the country 
upon which it had been living for so long. 

But Fremont frittered away his strength in send- 
ing regiments to chase guerrilla bands which dis- 
solved as soon as the trail became too hot. 

Two regiments were ordered to Lyon from points 
so distant that they could not make the march in less 
than 10 days or a fortnight, and some scanty sup- 
plies sent to Rolla remained there because of lack of 
wagons to carry them forward to Springfield, 120 
miles away. 

Later Gen. Fremont testified before the Commit- 



150 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

tee on the Conduct of the War that he had ordered 
Gen. Lyon, if he could not maintain himself at 
Springfield, to fall back to Rolla, but singularly he 
did not produce this order. 

Though Gen. Lyon had marched his men 50 miles 
in one day to prevent the junction of Gen. Ben Mc- 
Culloch's Arkansas column with the hosts Gen. Ster- 
ling Price was gathering from Missouri, he was not 
able to interpose between them. 

On Saturday, Aug. 3, the Confederates had all 
gotten together on the banks of Crane Creek, 55 
miles southwest of Springfield, with general head- 
quarters in and around the village of Cassville. 

How many were concentrated is subject to the 
same obscurity which usually envelops Confederate 
numbers. Lyon estimated there were 30,000. Later 
estimates by competent men put the number at 23,- 
000. Gen, Snead, Price's Adjutant-General, put the 
number at 11,000, which would be a severe reflection 
on the loyalty of the Missouri Secessionists to their 
Governor, since Gen. McCulloch certainly brought 
up about 5,000 from Arkansas, which would leave 
only 6,000 to respond to Gov. Jackson's proclama- 
tion, and gather under the standards set up by his 
seven Brigadier-Generals — Parsons, Rains, Slack, J. 
B. Clark, M. L. Clark, Watkins and Randolph. 

While Lyon had incomparable troubles, there was 
far from concord in the camp of his opponents. Like 
thousands of other men, McCulloch's ambition far 
transcended his abilities. He at once assumed the 
attitude that as a Brigadier- General in the Confed- 
erate army he out-ranked Sterling Price, who was a 
Major-General of State troops. This, at that early 



EVE OP THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 151 

period of the war, was a humorous reversal of the 
State Sovereignty idea, so flagrant in the minds of 
those precipitating Secession. Jefferson Davis and 
his school of thought had been fierce in their con- 
tention that the part was greater than the whole, 
and that the States were greater than the General 
Government. Yet Gen. McCulloch was unflinching 
in his insistence that a Confederate Brigadier-Gen- 
eral outranked a State Major-General. The dispute 
became quite acrimonious, but was at last settled by 
Price's yielding to McCulloch, so anxious was he that 
something decisive should be done toward driving 
back Lyon and "redeeming the State of Missouri." 
According to Gen. Thomas L. Snead, his Chief of 
Staff, he went to Gen. McCulloch's quarters on Sun- 
day morning, Aug. 4, and after vainly trying to per- 
suade McCulloch to attack Lyon, he said : 

"I am an older man than you. Gen. McCulloch, and 
I am not only your senior in rank now, but I was a 
Brigadier-General in the Mexican War, with an in- 
dependent command, when you were only a Captain ; 
I have fought and won more battles than you have 
ever witnessed ; my force is twice as great as yours ; 
and some of my officers rank, and have seen more 
service than you, and we are also upon the soil of 
our own State ; but. Gen. McCulloch, if you will con- 
sent to help us to whip Lyon and to repossess Mis- 
souri, I will put myself and all my forces under your 
command, and we will obey you as faithfully as the 
humblest of your own men. We can whip Lyon, and 
we will whip him and drive the enemy out of Mis- 
souri, and all the honor and all the glory shall be 
yours. All that we want is to regain our homes and 



152 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

to establish the independence of Missouri and the 
South. If you refuse to accept this offer, I will move 
M'ith the Missourians alone against Lyon; for it is 
better that they and I should all perish than Missouri 
be abandoned without a struggle. You must either 
fight beside us or look on at a safe distance and see 
us fight all alone the army which you dare not attack 
even with our aid. I must have your answer before 
dark, for I intend to attack Lyon tomorrow." 

Gen. McCulloch replied that he was expecting dis- 
patches from the East, but would make known his 
determination before sundown. At that time, ac- 
companied by Gen, Mcintosh, in whose abilities Gen. 
McCulloch had the highest confidence, and was 
largely influenced by him, he went to Price's head- 
quarters and informed him that he had just received 
dispatches that Gen. Pillow was advancing into the 
southeastern part of the State from New Madrid 
with 12,000 men, and that he would accept the com- 
mand of the united forces and attack Lyon. Price 
at once published an order that he had turned over 
the command of the Missouri troops to Gen. Mc- 
Culloch, but reserved the right to resume command 
at any time he might see fit. 

Their friends in Springfield kept Price and Mc- 
Culloch well-informed as to Lyon's diminishing 
force and perplexities. 

Brilliant as McCulloch may have been in command 
of 100 or so men, he was clearly unequal to the 
leadership of such a host. He was as much feebler 
in temper to Lyon as he was inferior in force and 
grasp to Sterling Price. 

An audacious stroke by Lyon on Friday, Aug. 2, 



EVE OF THE BATTLE OF WILSON*S CREEK. 153 

quite unsettled his nerves. Getting information that 
his enemies were moving on him by three different 
roads, Lyon formed the soldierly determination to 
move out swiftly and attack one of the columns and 
crush it before the other could come to its assistance. 

Putting Capt. D. S. Stanley — of whom we shall 
hear much hereafter — at the head with his troop of 
Regular cavalry, and following him with a battalion 
of Regulars under Capt. Frederick Steele — of whom 
we shall also hear a great deal hereafter — and a sec- 
tion of Totten's Regular Battery, he marched out 
the Cassville Road with his whole force and at Dug 
Springs, 20 miles away, came up with McCulloch's 
advance, commanded by Brig.-Gen. J. S. Rains, of 
the Missouri State Guards, of whom, too, we shall 
hear much. Col. Mcintosh, McCulloch's adviser, was 
also on the ground with 150 men. 

Rains attempted to put into operation the tactics 
employed against Sigel at Carthage, but Steele and 
Stanley were men of different temper, and attacked 
him so savagely as to scatter his force in wild con- 
fusion. 

Lyon marched forward to within six miles of the 
main Confederate position, and lay there 24 hours, 
when, not deeming it wise to attack so far from his 
base, retired unmolested to Springfield. 

This startling aggressiveness quite overcame Gen. 
McCulloch, and the conduct of the Missourians dis- 
gusted him. He was strong in his denunciation of 
them and quite frank in his reluctance to attack Gen. 
Lyon without further information as to "his posi- 
tion and fortifications," and complained bitterly that 
he could get no information as to the "barricades" 



154 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

in Springfield and other positions he might encoun- 
ter. He said that "he would not make a blind attack 
on Springfield," and "would order the whole army 
back to Cassville rather than bring on an engage- 
ment with an unknown enemy." 

Gen. Price was strenuous in his insistence upon 
attack, and finally McCulloch consented to meet all 
the general officers at his headquarters. In the 
council McCulloch was plain in his unwillingness to 
engage Lyon or to enter on any aggressive campaign, 
but Price, seconded by Gens. Parsons, Rains, Slack 
and McBride, were most determined that Lyon 
should be attacked at once, and declared that if Mc- 
Culloch would not do it he would resume command 
and fight the battle himself. McCulloch finally 
yielded, and ordered a forward movement, and on 
the morning of Aug. 6 the entire force was in camp 
along the bank of Wilson's Creek, about six miles 
south of Springfield. This position was taken large- 
ly because of its proximity to immense cornfields, 
which would supply the troops and animals with 
food. 

Wilson's Creek, rising in the neighborhood of 
Springfield, flows west some five miles, and then runs 
south nine or 10 miles in order to empty into the 
James River, a tributary of White River. Tyrel's 
Creek and Skegg's Branch, which have considerable 
valleys, are tributaries of Wilson's Creek. Above 
Skegg's Branch rises a hill, since known as Bloody 
Hill, nearly 100 feet high. Its sides are scored with 
ravines, the rock comes to the surface in many 
places, and the hight was thickly covered with an 
overgrowth of scrub-oak. There are other emin- 



EVE OF THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 155 

ences and ravines, generally covered with scrub-oak 
and undergrowth, and the Confederates were 
camped in an irregular line along these for a dis- 
tance of about three miles up and down Wilson's 
Creek, from the extreme right to the extreme left. 
Here they remained three days, with the much-dis- 
turbed McCulloch riding out every day with his 
Maynard rifle slung over his shoulder for a personal 
reconnoissance, which, as far as could be judged 
from his conversation on his return, was quite un- 
satisfactory. 

He had little stomach for the attack, and natur- 
ally found reasons against it. 

Price and his Generals, on the other hand, were 
fretting over the delay. Price's accurate informa- 
tion of Lyon's condition made him sure that Lyon 
would do the obvious thing — retreat. It was the 
warlike thing to do to attack at once, which had 
every chance of success. Success meant as telling a 
stroke for Secession in the West as Bull Run had 
been in the East. It would be quite as sensational, 
for there was no refuge or rallying point for the 
beaten Union army short of Rolla, 120 miles away, 
and the rough country, cut by innumerable valleys, 
gorges and streams, would enable the swarming 
mounted force to get in its wild work, and not per- 
mit the escape of a man, a gun or a wagon. 

McCulloch, yielding to Price's importunities, or- 
dered the army forward, and at dawn of Aug. 19 he 
and Mcintosh were sitting down to breakfast with 
Price and Snead, preparatory to leading their forces 
forward, when they were startled by their pickets 
being driven in. McCulloch, who had hated Rains 



156 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

from Old Army days, and despised him and his Mis- 
sourians since the Dug Springs affair, remarked con- 
temptuously, "0, it's only one of Rains's scares," 
and turned to his meal. But the matter instantly 
became more pressing than breakfast. 

Gen. Lyon had returned to Springfield Monday, 
Aug. 5, to meet an intense disappointment. Not a 
thing had been sent to meet his desperate needs. 
Fremont had ordered one regiment from Kansas and 
from the Missouri River to go forward to him, but 
they could hardly reach him in less than a fortnight. 
There were at that time some 44 regiments in Mis- 
souri — regiments commanded by men whose names 
afterward shine in history — U. S. Grant, John Pope, 
S. A. Hurlbut, John M. Palmer, John B. Turchin, 
S. B. Curtis, Morgan L. Smith, 0. E. Salomon, John 
McNeil, etc., — but they were kept garrisoning posts, 
chasing guerrillas, and at almost everything else 
than hurrying forward toward him, as they should 
have been. 

Two of his regiments — the 3d and 4th Mo. — took 
their discharge and started for St. Louis. The 1st 
Iowa's time was out, but Lyon asked the men to stay 
with him a few days longer, and they did to a man. 

Aside from the military reasons for holding 
Springfield there were others which appealed to 
Lyon's mind with equal power. His heart had bled 
over the outrages committed by the Secessionists 
upon the Union people in that section of the State. 
The presence of his army was the only security that 
the loyal people had that their farms would not be 
robbed and themselves murdered. Hundreds of 
them had gone into Springfield to be under his pro- 



EVE OF THE BATTLE OP \YILS0N'S CREEK. 157 

tection. How they could be ever gotten back to a 
place of safety in retreat was the gravest of prob- 
lems. Gen. Schofield, at that time his Adjutant-Gen- 
eral, and who disapproved of fighting the battle of 
Wilson's Creek, thinks that this consideration had 
more weight with him than the military reasons, 
and induced him to fight where the judgment of the 
soldier was against it. 

Four anxious days longer Lyon remained at 
Springfield. He called a council of his principal 
officers, and the unanimous decision was that the 
army should retreat. 

On Aug. 9 he sent the following letter to Gen. Fre- 
mont, the last he ever wrote : 

General: I retired to this place, as I before informed you, 
reaching here on the 5th. The enemy followed to within 10 
miles of here. He has taken a strong position, and is re- 
cruiting his supply of horses, mules, and provisions by for- 
ages into the surrounding country, his large force of mounted 
men enabling him to do this without much annoyance from 
me. I find my position extremely embarrassing, and am at 
present unable to determine whether I shall be able to main- 
tain my ground or be forced to retire. I can resist any attack 
from the front, but if the enemy move to surround me I must 
retire. I shall hold my ground as long as possible, though 
I may, without knowing how far, endanger the safety of my 
entire force, with its valuable material, being induced by the 
valuable considerations involved to take the step. The enemy 
showed himself in considerable force yesterday five miles 
from here, and has doubtless a full purpose of attacking me. 

N. LYON, Commanding. 

The simple, soldierly dignity of this is pathetic. 
There is no murmur of complaint, such as a man 
treated as he had been was eminently justified in 
making. After sending this note. Gen. Lyon received 
intelligence that one of his cavalry parties had been 
attacked by rebel cavalry, but after a brief fight 
had beaten them off. He thereupon sent out a re- 
connoitering party to learn if the Secessionists had 



158 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

moved forward, and the party presently returned 
with two Texan and two Tennesseean prisoners, 
from whom Lyon learned for the first time of the 
junction of McCulloch's forces and Price's. He at 
once decided upon a bold stroke. Everything was 
prepared as if in readiness for retreat, with the 
tents struck and the Quartermaster's and Commis- 
sary's stores in the wagons. Quartermaster Alexis 
Mudd went to headquarters and asked Gen. Lyon : 

"When do we start back?" 

The General fixed his keen blue eyes upon the 
Quartermaster and said, clearly and firmly: 

"When we are whipped back, and not until then." 

An order was at once issued for every man to be 
prepared to march at 6 o'clock that evening, without 
any luggage, and with all the ammunition he could 
carry. 

Calling a council of officers, Gen. Lyon announced 
his intention to move out and attack the enemy in 
his chosen position. Gen. Sigel proposed that he be 
allowed to take his regiment and Col. Salomon's to 
move independently and take the enemy in flank and 
rear. The other officers strongly opposed this, while 
Gen. Lyon withheld his consent, but finally yielded 
to Sigel's entreaties and authorized the movement, 
giving Sigel 1,400 infantry, two companies of cav- 
alry and six pieces of artillery, to move along the 
Fayetteville Road until he should reach the right 
flank and rear of the enemy, and at daybreak attack 
them vigorously. 

Lyon was to retain 3,700 men and 10 pieces of ar- 
tillery and move down the Mount Vernon Road and 



EVE OF THE BATTLE OP WILSON'S CREEK. 159 

attack in the morning on the left front and flank 
simultaneously with Sigel's attack on the right. 

A force of 250 Home Guards with two pieces of 
artillery was left at Springfield to guard the trains 
and public property. Col. Sigel's column moved out 
at 6 : 30 o'clock in the evening by the left and arrived 
at daybreak of the lOth within two miles of the ex- 
treme right and rear of the enemy's camp, where 
they proceeded to cut off and bring into camp some 
40 stragglers who were out foraging. This was 
done to prevent their carrying intelligence into 
camp. 

Gen. Lyon, with the First, Second and Third Bri- 
gades, set out about the same hour, and by 1 o'clock 
in the morning came within sight of the enemy's 
camp-fires, where they halted until morning. Capt. 
Plummer was ordered to deploy his battalion to act 
as skirmishers on the left, while Maj. Osterhaus did 
the same on the right with his battalion of the 2d 
Mo. 



CHAPTER X. 

IF the idea of an attack by Gen. Lyon was remote 
from Gen. McCulloch's thoughts, it was entirely 
absent from those of Gen. Sterling Price. Gen. 
Price's mind was concentrated upon the plan to 
which he had wrung McCulloch's reluctant consent 
of advancing that morning upon Lyon in four col- 
umns, and thereby crushing him, probably capturing 
his army entire or driving him into a ruinous retreat. 
The first messengers bringing the news of Lyon's 
close proximity were received with contemptuous 
disbelief by McCulloch, but on their heels came an 
Aid from Gen. Rains with the announcement that 
the fields in front of Rains were "covered with Yan- 
kees, infantry and artillery." This roused all to sol- 
dierly activity. Neither Price nor McCulloch lacked 
anything of the full measure of martial courage, and 
both at once sped to their respective commands to 
lead them into action. 

After breaking up the council of war, the pre- 
vious afternoon. Gen. Lyon said very little beyond 
giving from time to time, as circumstances called, 
sharp, precise, practical orders. Naturally talkative 
and disputatious, he was, when action was demand- 
ed, brief, sententious, and sparing of any words but 
what the occasion demanded. He had carefully 
thought out his plan of march and battle to the last 
detail — determined exactly what he and every su- 
bordinate, every regiment and battery should do, 

160 



MAP 

or TBS 

BATTLE-FIELD 

WTLSON^S CREEK, Mo., 

Aug. 10, 1861 




BATTLE OP WILSON'S CREEK. 161 

and his directions to them were clear, concise, 
prompt and unmistakable. 

He rode with Maj. Schofield, his Chief of Staff, to 
the place where they halted about midnight in sight 
of the rebel campfires and slept with him in the brief 
bivouac under the same blanket. To Schofield he 
seemed unusually depressed. The only words he 
said, beyond necessary orders, were — almost as if 
talking to himself : 

"I would give my life for a victory." 

Again, in response to Schofield's discreet criticism 
of the wisdom of dividing his forces and giving Sigel 
an independent command, he said briefly : 

"It is Sigel's plan." 

Sigel's theoretical knowledge of war and his ex- 
perience were then felt to be so overshadowing to 
everybody else's as to estop criticism. 

The men of Lyon's little army lay down on their 
grassy bivouac with feelings of tensest expectation. 
With the exception of the few of the Regulars who 
had been in the Mexican and Indian wars, not one 
of them had ever heard a gun fired in anger. They 
had been talking battle for three months. Now it 
was upon them, but none of them could realize how 
sharp would be the combat, nor how exceedingly 
well they were going to acquit themselves. 

At the first streak of dawn Lyon was up — all ac- 
tivity and anticipation — to open the battle. He had 
wisely selected the two men who were to strike the 
first blows. 

Capt. Jos. B. Plummer, who commanded the Reg- 
ulars deployed as skirmishers on the left, and who 
Was .'to make a splendid record before the now-rising 



162 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

sun should set, was a man after Lyon's own heart. 
He was strongly in favor of the battle, and after- 
ward defended it as the wisest thing to do under the 
circumstances. He was born in Massachusetts, and 
had graduated in 1841 in the same class with Lyon 
and Totten, whose battery was to do magnificent 
service, and avenge the insults and humiliations of 
Little Rock. Plummer's standing in his class was 
22, where Lyon's was 11 and Totten's 25. He had 
been in garrison in Vera Cruz during the Mexican 
War, and so had escaped getting the brevets "for 
gallant and meritorious conduct" which had been so 
freely bestowed on all who had been "present" at 
any engagement, but had reached the rank of Cap- 
tain in 1852, a year later than Capt. Lyon. He was 
to rise to Colonel of the 11th Mo. and Brigadier- 
General of Volunteers, and everywhere display vigor 
and capacity in important commands, but to have 
his career cut short by his untimely death near 
Corinth, Miss., Aug. 9, 1862, at the age of 43 years. 
Maj. Peter Joseph Osterhaus, who commanded 
the two companies of his regiment — the 2d Mo. — 
deployed on the right, was the best soldier in that 
wonderful immigration of bright, educated, enthus- 
iastic young Germans who took refuge in this coun- 
try after the failure of the Revolution of 1848. At 
least, he was tried longer in large commands, and 
rose to a higher rank than any of them. Sigel and 
Carl Schurz became, like him, Major-Generals of 
Volunteers, but his service was regarded as much 
higher than theirs, and he was esteemed as one of 
the best division and corps commanders in the Army 
of the Teaaaessiee. Aftfer long service, as a diviaion 



BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 163 

commander he commanded the Fifteenth Corps on 
the 'March to the Sea. He was born in Prussia, ed- 
ucated as a soldier, took part in the Revolution, mi- 
grated to this country, and was invaluable to Lyon 
in organizing the Home Guards among the Germans 
to save the Arsenal. He still lives, a specially hon- 
ored veteran, at Mannheim, in Prussia. 

Capt. Jas. Totten, whose battery was placed in the 
center, was to win a Lieutenant-Colonel's brevet for 
his splendid service during the day, but got few hon- 
ors during the rest of the war. He became a Brig- 
adier-General of Missouri Militia, and received the 
complimentary brevets of Colonel and Brigadier- 
General when they were generally handed round on 
March 13, 1865, but his unfortunate habits caused 
his dismissal from the Army in 1870. He was then 
Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Inspector-General. 

There were many men among Lyon's subordinates 
whose conduct during the day brought them promi- 
nence and started them on the way to distinction. 

Maj. Samuel D. Sturgis, of the 4th U. S. Cav., a 
Pennsylvanian, who was that day to win the star of 
a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and who com- 
manded the First Brigade, afterward rose to the 
command of a division, fought with credit at Second 
Manassas, South Mountain and Fredericksburg, for 
which he received brevets, and was overwhelmingly 
defeated, while in command of an independent ex- 
pedition, by Forrest, at Guntovni, Miss., June 10, 
1864, and passed into retirement. He became Col- 
onel of the 7th U. S. Cav. after the war. He was a, 
graduate of West Point in 1832. 



164 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Lieut.-Col. I. F. Shepard, who was Lyon's Aid, 
became a Brigadier-General of Volunteers. 

Maj. John M. Schofield, Lyon's Adjutant-General, 
has been spoken of elsewhere. 

Capt. Gordon Granger, 3d U. S. Cav., a New 
Yorker and a graduate of the class of 1841, was 
Lyon's Assistant Adjutant-General, and won a 
brevet for his conduct that day. He was a man of 
far more than ordinary abilities — many pronounced 
him a great soldier, and said that only his unbridled 
tongue prevented him rising higher than he did. He 
became a Major-General and a Corps Commander, 
led the troops to Thomas's assistance at the critical 
moment at Chickamauga, but fell under the displeas- 
ure of Sherman, who relieved him. He afterward 
commanded the army which captured Forts Gaines 
and Morgan, and received the surrender of Mobile. 

Capt. Frederick Steele, 2d U. S., Gen. Grant's 
classmate and lifelong friend, who had won brevets 
in Mexico, commanded a battalion of two companies. 
He was to become Colonel of the 8th Iowa, Brigadier 
and Major-General, and render brilliant service at 
Vicksburg and in Arkansas. 

Maj. John A. Halderman, 1st Kan., who succeeded 
to the command of the regiment when Col. Deitzler 
was wounded, was commended by all his superior 
officers for his handsome conduct. He had been ap- 
pointed by Gen. Lyon Provost Marshal-General of 
the Western Army, and was afterwards commis- 
sioned a Major-General. He entered the diplomatic 
service under President Grant; became Minister to 
Siam, and was praised all ' over the woi-ld f oir his 
success in bringing that country into touch wtth 
dvilizatioli. 



BATTLE OP WILSON'S CREEK. 165 

Lieut.-Col. G. L. Andrews, who in the absence of 
Col. F. P. Blair, commanded the 1st Mo., was a 
Rhode Island man, who afterward entered the Reg- 
ular Army, fought creditably through the war, and 
in 1892 was retired as a Colonel. 

In the 1st Mo. was Capt. Nelson Cole, who was 
severely wounded. He served through the war, rose 
to be a Colonel, became Senior Vice Commander-in- 
Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was a 
Brigadier-General of Volunteers in the war with 
Spain. 

In the 1st Kan. were Col. Geo. W. Detzler, who 
later became a Brigadier-General; Capt. Powell 
Clayton, who was to become a Colonel, Brigadier- 
General, Governor of Arkansas, Senator, and Em- 
bassador to Mexico, and Capt. Daniel McCook, who 
was to become Brigadier-General, and fall at Kene- 
saw. 

In the 2d Kan. were Col. Robert B. Mitchell, of 
Ohio, who rose to be Brigadier-General and did gal- 
lant service in the Army of the Cumberland; Maj. 
Charles W. Blair, who became a Brigadier-General, 
and Capt. Samuel J. Crawford, who became a Colo- 
nel, a brevet Brigadier-General, and Governor of 
Kansas. 

In the 1st Iowa were Lieut.-Col. W. H. Merritt, a 
New Yorker, who commanded the regiment and 
afterwards became a Colonel on the staff, and Capt. 
Francis J. Herron, who became a Major-General of 
Volunteers and commanded a division at Prairie 
Grove, Vicksburg, and in Texas. 

There were very many in these regiments serving 
as privates and non-commissioned oflEicers who after- 



166 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

wards made fine records as commanders of compan- 
ies and regiments and became distinguished in civil 
life. Taken altogether, Lyon's army was an unusual- 
ly fine body of fighting men. The Iowa and Kansas 
men were ardent, enthusiastic youths, accustomed to 
the use of the gun, and who hunted their enemies as 
they did the wild beasts they had to encounter. They 
were free from the superstition inculcated in the 
Eastern armies that the soldier's duty was to stand 
up in the open and be shot at. When it was neces- 
sary to stand up they stood up gallantly, but at other 
times they took advantage of every protection and 
lay behind any rock or trunk of tree in wait for the 
enemy to come within easy range, and then fired 
with fatal effect. 

The older Regulars trained to Indian fighting were 
equally effective, and speedily brought the mass of 
recruits associated with them into similar efficiency. 

Nowhere else at that early period of the war was 
the fire of the Union soldiers so deliberate and deadly 
as at Wilson's Creek. 

The Confederates had no pickets out — not even 
camp-guards. They had been marched and counter- 
marched severely for days, and were resting pre- 
paratory to advancing that morning on Springfield. 
Many were at breakfast, many others starting out to 
get material for breakfast in the neighboring fields. 
Rains's Division was the most advanced, and Rains 
reports that he discovered the enemy when about 
three miles from camp, and that he put his Second 
Brigade — mounted men commanded by Col. Caw- 
thorn, of the 4th Mo. — into line to resist the advance. 
He says that the brigade maintained its position all 



BATTLE OP WILSON'S CREEK. 167 

day, which does not agree with the other accounts of 
the battle. 

Before Gen. Lyon — a mile and a half away — rose 
the eminence, afterward known as "Bloody Hill," 
which overlooked the encampment of the Confed- 
erates along Wilson's Creek, and on which substan- 
tially all the fighting was to take place. From it the 
Confederate trains were in short reach, and the rout 
of the enemy could be secured. Its central position, 
however, made it easy to concentrate troops for its 
defense and bring up reinforcements. 

Capt. Plummer sent forward Capt. C. C. Gilbert, 
1st U. S., with his company to guard the left of the 
advance, cross Wilson's Creek, and engage the right 
of the enemy. Capt. Gilbert was a soldier of fine 
reputation, who was to win much credit on subse- 
quent fields ; to rise to the rank of Brigadier-General 
and the brief command of a corps, and then to fall 
under the displeasure of his commanding offi- 
cers. Capt. Gilbert moved forward rapidly until he 
came to Wilson's Creek, where his skirmishers were 
stopped by swamps and jungles of brushwood, when 
Capt. Plummer caught up with him, and the whole 
battalion finally crossed the creek and advanced into 
a cornfield, easily driving away the first slight force 
that attempted to arrest them. 

In the meanwhile quite a number of the enemy 
was discovered assembling on the crest of the ridge, 
and Gen. Lyon forming the 1st Mo. into line sent 
them forward on the right to engage these, while the 
1st Kan. came up on the left and opened a brisk fire, 
with Totten's battery in the center, which also open- 
ed fire. 



168 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

This was about 10 minutes past 5, when the battle 
may be said to have fairly opened. The 1st Iowa 
and the 2d Kan., with Capt. Steele's battalion of 
Regulars, were held in reserve. Rains's Missourians 
responded pluckily to the fire, and Gen. Price began 
rushing up assistance to them until he says that he 
had over 2,000 men on the ridge. The 1st Kan. and 
the 1st Mo. pressed resolutely forward, delivering 
their fire at short range, and after a sharp contest 
of 20 minutes the Missourians gave way and fled 
down the hill. 

There was a brief lull, in which the Union men 
were encouraged by hearing Sigel's artillery open 
two miles away, on the other flank of the enemy, 
and Lyon found his line preparatory to pushing for- 
ward and striking the trains. Already there were 
symptoms of panic there, and some of the wagons 
were actually in flames. 

Gen. Rains soon succeeded in rallying his men, 

Gens. Slack, McBride, Parsons and Clark rushed to 
his assistance with what men they could hastily as- 
semble, and Gen. Price led them forward in a line 
covering Gen. Lyon's entire front. Both sides show- 
ed an earnest disposition to come to close quarters, 
and a fierce fight lasting for perhaps half an hour 
followed. Sometimes portions of the Union troops 
were thrown into temporary disorder, but they only 
fell back a few yards, when they would rally and re- 
turn to the field. The enemy strove to reach the 
crest of the ridge and drive the Union troops back, 
but were repulsed, while the Union troops, following 
them to the foot of the ridge, were driven back to 
the crest. 

The Confederates brought up a battery, which, 



BATTLE OP WILSON'S CREEK. 169 

however, was soon silenced by the fire concentrated 
upon it from Totten's battery and that of Lieut. 
Du Bois. In the meanwhile Capt. Plummer had 
been pushing his Regulars thru the corn and oat 
fields toward the battery which he wanted to take, 
and was within 200 yards of it when Capt. Mcin- 
tosh, an officer of the Old Army, and now Adjutant- 
General for McCuUoch, saw the danger and rushed 
up the 3d La. and the 2d Ark. against Plummer's 
left. The Regulars made a stubborn resistance for 
a few minutes, but their line was enveloped by the 
long line of the two regiments, and they fell back 
with considerable haste across the creek toward Tot- 
ten's battery. 

Mcintosh saw his advantage and pursued it to the 
utmost, sending his Loui&ianians and Arkansans 
fonvard on the double-quick to prevent Plummer 
from rallying. The watchful DuBois saw the trou- 
ble the Regulars were in, and turning his guns upon 
his pursuers enfiladed them with canister and shell 
with such effect that they in turn ran, and were ral- 
lied by Mcintosh behind a little log house, into which 
DuBois put a couple of shells and sent them further 
back. 

By this time the battle was two hours old and the 
roar of the conflict died down, except on the extreme 
right, where the 1st Mo. was still having a bitter 
struggle with a superior force of fresh troops with 
which Price was endeavoring to turn the Union right 
flank. 

Gen. Lyon, who had watched every phase of the 
battle closely, ordered Capt. Totten to move part of 
his battery to the support of the 1st Mo., but as the 
Captain was about to open he was restrained by see- 



170 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

ing a regiment advancing to within a distance of 
about 200 yards, carrying both a Federal and a 
Confederate flag. It was the direction from which 
Sigel had been anxiously expected, and as the uni- 
form of the advancing regiment was similar to that 
of Sigel's men, both the infantry and the artillery 
withheld their fire until the enemy revealed his char- 
acter by a volley, when Capt. Totten opened all his 
guns upon them with canister and inflicted great 
slaughter. 

Capt. Cary Gratz, of the 1st Mo., was so indignant 
at this treachery that he dashed out and shot down 
the man who was carrying the Union flag, only to be 
shot down himself almost immediately afterwards 
by several bullets from the Confederates. The 2d 
Kan. was also hurried forward to support the 1st 
Mo. Capt. Steele's battalion was brought up and 
the 1st Iowa was sent in to relieve the 1st Kan., 
which had suffered quite severely and was nearly 
out of ammunition. 

The battle was renewed with much greater fierce- 
ness than ever, the Confederates advancing in three 
or four ranks, lying down, kneeling, standing, some- 
times getting within 30 or 40 yards of the Union line 
before they were forced back. 

Gen. Lyon was everywhere where his presence 
was needed to encourage the troops, rally them, and 
bring them back into line. His horse was shot, and 
he received a wound in the head and one on the 
ankle. He continued to walk along the line, but he 
was evidently much depressed by the way in which 
Price and McCulloch succeeded in bringing for- 
ward fresh troops to replace those which had been 
driven from the field. He said to Maj. Schofield 



BATTLE OP WILSON'S CREEK. 171 

sadly, "I fear the day is lost." Schofield replied en- 
couragingly, dismounted one of his orderlies and 
gave the horse to Lyon, when they separated, each 
to lead a regiment. It was now 9 o'clock, or little 
after, and there was a lull in the fight, during which 
time the enemy seemed to be reorganizing his force, 
and Lyon began concentrating his into a more com- 
pact form on the crest of the ridge. 

Capt. Sweeny called Lyon's attention to his 
wounds, but Lyon answered briefly, "It is nothing." 

Schofield moved off to rally a portion of the 1st 
Iowa, which showed a disposition to break under the 
terrific fire, and lead it back into action. Gen. Lyon 
rode for a moment or two with the file closers on 
the right of the 1st Iowa, and then turned toward 
the 2d Kan., which was moved forward under the 
lead of Col. Mitchell. In a few moments the Colonel 
fell, wounded, and Gen. Lyon shouted to the regi- 
ment to come on, that he would lead them. The next 
instant, almost, a bullet pierced his breast and he 
fell dead. Lehman, his faithful orderly, was near 
him when he fell, and rushed to his assistance, rais- 
ing a terrible outcry, which some of the officers near 
promptly quieted lest it discourage the troops. 

After a bitter struggle of fully half an hour the 
Confederates were driven back all along the line, 
and the battle ceased for a little while. The Confed- 
erates retired so completely that it looked as if the 
battle was won, and Maj. Schofield, finding Maj. 
Sturgis, informed him that he was in command, and 
the principal officers were hastily gathered together 
for a consultation. The first and most anxious in- 
quiry of all was as to what had become of Sigel. It 
was all-important to know that. If a junction could 



172 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

be formed with him the army could advance and 
drive the enemy completely from the field. 

Sigel had crossed Wilson's Creek and come into 
line within easy range of McCulloch's headquarters, 
where Capt. Shaeffer opened with his battery upon 
a large force of Arkansan, Texan and Missourian 
troops who were engaged in getting breakfast. They 
were so demoralized by the awful storm of shells 
that at least one regiment — Col. Greer's of Texas — 
did not recover its composure during the day, and 
took little if any part in the rest of the engagement. 

Col. Churchill succeeded in rallying his Arkansas 
regiment, but before he could return and engage 
Sigel he received urgent orders to hurry over to 
the right and help drive back Lyon. Sigel's men 
moved forward into the deserted camp, but unfortu- 
nately broke ranks and began plundering it. 

McCulloch had rushed over to his headquarters in 
time to meet the fugitives, and by great exertions suc- 
ceeded in rallying about 2,000 men, with whom he 
attacked Sigel's disorganized men in the camps, and 
drove them out. Sigel succeeded in rallying a por- 
tion of his men, when McCulloch advanced upon 
them with a regiment the uniforms of which were 
so like that of the volunteers under Lyon that his 
men could not be persuaded that it was not a por- 
tion of Lyon's troops advancing to their assistance, 
and they withheld their fire until the Confederates 
were within 10 paces, when the latter poured in such 
a destructive volley that men and horses went down 
before it, and Sigel's Brigade was utterly routed, 
with a loss of some 250 prisoners and a regimental 
flag, which was afterwards used to deceive the Union 
troops. 



BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 178 

With the exception of the two troops of Regular 
cavalry under Capt. E. A. Carr, which seem to have 
done nothing during this time, Sigel's Brigade dis- 
appeared completely from the action, and Sigel and 
Salomon, with a few men, rode back to Springfield, 
where it is said that they went to bed. This inexpli- 
cable action by Sigel bitterly prejudiced the other 
officers against him, and was continually coming up 
in judgment against him. 

There is no doubt of Sigel's personal courage, but 
why, with the sound of Lyon's cannon in his ears, 
and knowing full well the desperate struggle his 
superior officer was engaged in, he made no effort to 
rally his troops or to take any further part in the 
battle, is beyond comprehension. Col. Salomon, who 
accompanied him in his flight to Springfield, after- 
ward became Colonel of a Wisconsin regiment, and 
made a brilliant record. 

it was yet but little after 9 o'clock, and despite the 
stubbornness of the fighting no decisive advantage 
had been gained on either side. 

The Union troops were masters of the savagely 
contested hill, but all their previous efforts to ad- 
vance beyond, pierce the main Confederate line, and 
reach the trains below had been repulsed. Had 
they better make another attempt? 

The hasty council of war decided that it would ba 
unsafe to do so until Col. Sigel was heard from. The 
army was already badly crippled, for the 1st Kan. 
and the 1st Mo. had lost one-third of their men and 
half their officers, the others had suffered nearly as 
severely, and everybody was running short of am- 
munition. They had marched all night, and gone 
into tetle without bfefakf a^, had been fighting five 



174 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

hours, and were suffering terribly from heat, thirst 
and exhaustion. 

The council was suddenly brought to an end by 
seeing a large force which Price and McCulloch had 
rallied come over the hill directly in the Union front. 
A battery which Gen. Price had established on the 
crest of the hill somewhat to the left opened a fire 
of canister and shrapnel, but the Union troops show- 
ed the firmest front of any time during the day, and 
Totten's and DuBois's batteries hurled a storm of 
canister into the advancing infantry. Gen. Price 
had brought up fresh regiments to replace those 
which had been fought out, and it seemed as if the 
Union line would be overwhelmed. But the offi- 
cers brought up every man they could reach. Capt. 
Gordon Granger threw three companies of the 1st 
Mo., three companies of the 1st Kan., and two com- 
panies of the 1st Iowa, which had been supporting 
DuBois's battery, against the right flank of the 
enemy and by their terrible enfilade fire sent it back 
in great disorder. On the right Lieut.-Col. Blair, 
with the 2d Kan., was having an obstinate fight, but 
with the assistance of a section of Totten's battery 
under Lieut. Sokalski the enemy was at last driven 
back clear out of sight. 

The battle had now raged bitterly for six hours, 
with every attempt of the enemy to drive the stub- 
bom defenders from the crest of the hill repulsed. 
The slope on the eminence was thickly strewn with 
the dead and wounded. The Confederates had suf- 
fered fearfully. Cols. Weightman and Brown, who 
commanded brigades, had been killed, and Gens. 
Price, Slack and Clark wounded. The loss of subor- 
dinate affiders had befen Viery^ heavy. They' had been 



BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 175 

clearly fought to a finish, and an attempt of their 
cavalry to turn the Union right flank had been re- 
pulsed with great loss by Totten's battery and sev- 
eral companies of the 1st Mo. and the 1st Kan. The 
shells produced the greatest consternation among 
the horses and men, as they were delivered at short 
range with unerring aim. The entire Confederate 
line left the field, disappearing thru the thick woods 
in the valley to their camp on Wilson's Creek, some- 
what to the right of the Union center. 

Another brief council of war resulted in an order 
from Maj. Sturgis to fall back. Nothing could be 
heard from Sigel, the men were exhausted, the am- 
munition nearly gone, and it seemed best to retire 
while there was an opportunity left. As subse- 
quently learned this was a great mistake, because 
the Confederate army was in full retreat, and an 
advance from the Union army would have sent them 
off the field for good. 

The Union officers did the best they could accord- 
ing to their light, and their retirement was in the 
best order and absolutely unmolested. 

The retreat began about 11:30 and continued two 
miles to a prairie northeast of the battleground, 
where a halt was made to enable the Surgeons to 
collect the wounded in ambulances. Gen. Lyon's 
body had been placed in an ambulance, but by some- 
one's order was taken out again and left on the prai- 
rie with the rest of the dead. 

About 5 o'clock in the afternoon the army reached 
Springfield, and there found Sigel and Salomon and 
most of their brigade, with the others coming in 
fro"m all direttions. 



176 



THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 



In spite of his conduct on the battlefield, Sigel's 
great theoretical knowledge and experience in Euro- 
pean wars decided that the command should be 
turned over to him, and he was formally placed at 
the head. 

According to official reports the casualties in the 
Union army were as follows : 





Officers 


Enlisted 
Men 




COMMAND 


5 


m 
■o 
a 

3 
o 

12 
8 
5 

1 

3 

1 
1 


bo 
C 

i 
'2 

2 
• • 


-a 

5 

76 

73 

11 

4 

15 

2 

19 

15 

4 

2 


<D 

•a 
c 



216 

187 

133 

59 

31 

24 

51 
43 

7 
2 

1 

2 
1 


bo 

c 
"K 

*8 

20 

4 

6 

231 

9 

2 

'i 

3 
4 


bo 
<u 
u 
bo 
be 
< 


Staff 


1 
1 

4 
X 


1 


1st Mo. Vols., Col. Andrews. . . 
1st Kan. Vols.. Col Deitzler. . . 
1st Iowa Vols., Col. Merritt. . . . 
2d Kan. Vols., Col. Mitchell. . . 
Sigel's Brigade, 3d and 5th Mo. 
Vols 


309 

292 

154 

70 

282 


2d Mo. Vols., Osterhaus's bat- 
talion 

Plummer's battalion. Regular 
Inf 


•• 


26 
80 


Steele's battalion. Regular Inf. 

Totten's battery 

Du Bois's battery 

1st U. S. Cav., Co. D 

Carr's Squadron, Regular Cav. 
Maj. Clark Wright's Home 

Guards 

Kansas Rangers 


■■ 


61 

11 

5 

4 

4 

2 

1 


Total 


7 


311 4I5!!>1 


751 ?!RS 


1,302 















The official reports give the casualties in the Con' 
federate army as follows: 



BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 



177 





Officers 


Enlisted 
Men 




COMMAND 


5 
3 

i 

3 
3 

'i 
*i 

2 


<p 
■c 

c 

o 

1 

1 

2 
5 
1 

2 

11 
3 

*3 

'i 


bo 

B 
'55 
to 


0) 

35 
23 
22 
15 

59 

39 
10 

2 
8 

'5 

23 

3 


0) 

S3 


84 
75 

119 
47 

195 

144 
51 

7 
45 

1 
22 
81 
11 


bo 

a 

1 
30 

ii 

*3 

19 

1 


? 
bo 
<o 
u 
bo 
bo 
< 


Army of Missouri, under Gen. 
Price: 

Gen. Price's Staff 

Gen. Slack's Division 


1 

155 


Gen. John B. Clark's Division. 

Gen. McBride's Division 

Gen. Parsons's Division 

Gen. Rains's Division 

Confederate Army, under Gen. 
McCulloch: 

1st Reg't Ark. M'fd Rifles 

2d Reg't Ark. M't'd Rifles 

McRae's battalion. Ark. Vols. . 
3d La. Vols 


103 

146 

64 

270 

197 

64 

9 

60 


Reid's Battery 

1st Ark. Cav 


1 

48 


3d Ark. Vols 


110 


5th Ark. Inf 

4th Ark. Inf 


14 


Total 


19 


301 ,. 


244 


885 


64 


1,242 



CHAPTER XL 

AN analytical study of the losses in the preced- 
ing chapter will aid in a more thoro apprecia- 
tion of the most bitter battle fought on the 
American Continent up to that time, and by far the 
severest which had ever been waged west of the Al- 
legheny Mountains. It will be perceived that the 
loss in the Union army was almost wholly in Gen. 
Lyon's column of 4,000 men, or less, which suffered 
to the extent of almost one-third of its number. In 
the 1,300 men in Gen. Sigel's command the loss was 
insignificant, except in prisoners. 

Both sides fought with a stubbornness absolutely 
unknown in European wars, but the regiments of 
the Union army seemed to be inspired with that 
higher invincibility of purpose which characterized 
their great leader. 

Judged by the simple equation of losses, the Union 
regiments displayed a far greater tenacity of pur- 
pose than the Confederates. We have no exact fig- 
ures as to the number in each Union regiment, as 
there were constant changes taking place; a great 
many men had served their time out and more were 
claiming and receiving their discharges. 

Aug. 4, 1861, six days before the battle, Gen. Lyon 
gave from "recollection" the following estimate of 
the strength of his command, which must have been 
considerably reduced in the seven days between that 
and the battle, and from which must be deducted 

178 



THE AFTERMATH OP WILSON'S CREEK. 179 

some 250 men left to guard the trains and property 
in Springfield: 

FIRST BRIGADE — MAJ. STURGIS. 

Four companies cavalry 250 

Four companies 1st U. S. Inf. (Plummer's) 350 

Two companies 2d Mo. Vols 200 

One company artillery (Capt. Totten's Battery) .... 84 

884 

SECOND BRIGADE — COL. FRANZ SIGEL. 

3d Mo. Vols 700 

6th Mo. Vols 600 

2d Art. (battery) 120 

1,420 

THIRD BRIGADE — LIEUT.-COL. ANDREWS. 

1st Mo. Vols 900 

Four companies infantry (Regulars) 300 

One battery artillery 64 

1,264 

FOURTH BRIGADE — COL. DEITZLER. 

Two Kansas regiments 1,400 

1st Iowa (Col. Bates) 900 

2,300 

Grand Total 5,868 

It is altogether unlikely that the 1st Mo., for ex- 
ample, took into battle within 100 or more of the 
900 men assigned to it, and the same thing is true 
of the 900 men given for the 1st Iowa, and the 700 
each for the two Kansas regiments. 

If we assume that the 1st Mo. and the 1st Iowa 
had 800 men each and the Kansas regiments 600 
each, we find that the loss of 295 for the 1st Mo., 284 
for the 1st Kan., and 154 for the 1st Iowa to be ap- 
palling. The Regulars suffered severely, but not so 
badly as the volunteers. 

Among those who were noted for gallant conduct 
in the battle of Wilson's Creek was Eugene F. Ware, 
then a private in the 1st Iowa, and who afterward 
became a Captain in the 7th Iowa Cav. In civil life 



180' THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

he attained a leading place at the Kansas bar, and 
was appointed Commissioner of Pensions by Presi- 
dent Roosevelt. 

None of the Confederate regiments engaged suf- 
fered to anything like the same extent, and as they 
were driven from the field, while the Union regi- 
ments maintained their position and were even ready 
for further aggression, the palm of higher purposes 
and more desperate fighting must be unhesitatingly 
conceded to the Union volunteers. Few of the Con- 
federate commanders give reports of the number 
they carried into action, but many of their regiments 
must have been approximately as strong as those of 
the Union, and they had many more of them. 

The moral effect of the battle was prodigious on 
both sides. The Union troops were conscious of 
having met overwhelming forces and fought them to 
a stand-still, if not actual defeat. Every man felt 
himself a victor as he left the field, and only re- 
treated because the exigencies of the situation ren- 
dered that the most politic move. 

It was consequently a great encouragement to 
the Union sentiment everywhere, and did much to 
retrieve the humiliation of Bull Run. The Confed- 
erates naturally made the very most of the fact that 
they had been left masters of the field, and they di- 
lated extensively upon the killing of Gen. Lyon and 
the crushing defeat they had administered upon 
Sigel, with capture of prisoners, guns and flags. They 
used this to so good purpose as to greatly stimulate 
the Secession spirit thruout the State. 

Gen. McCulloch's dispatches to the Confederate 
War Department are, to say the least, disingenuous. 
His first dispatch that evening stated that the enemy 



THE AFTERMATH OF WILSON'S CREEK. 181 

was 12,000 strong, but had "fled" after eight hours' 
hard fighting. His second official report, dated two 
days after the battle, gave his "effective" forces at 
5,300 infantry, 15 pieces of artillery and 6,000 horse- 
men, armed with flintlock muskets, rifles and shot- 
guns. He says : "There were other horsemen with 
the army, but they were entirely unarmed, and in- 
stead of being a help they were continually in the 
way." He repeatedly pronounces the collisions at 
the different periods of the battle as "terrific," and 
says: "The incessant roar of musketry was 
deafening, and the balls fell as thick as hailstones." 
His next sentences are at surprising variance with 
the concurrent testimony on the Union side; for he 
says: "Nothing could withstand the impetuosity 
of our final charge. The enemy fell back and could 
not again be rallied, and they were seen at 12 m. 
fast retreating among the hills in the distance. This 
ended the battle. It lasted six hours and a half." 

By this time Gen. McCulloch had reduced the 
Union force to betwen 9,000 and 10,000, and he 
claims the Union loss to have been 800 killed, 1,000 
wounded and 300 prisoners. He gave his own loss 
at 265 killed, 800 wounded and 30 missing. His 
colleague, Gen. Price, he curtly dismisses with this 
brief laudation: "To Gen. Price I am under many 
obligations for assistance on the battlefield. He was 
at the head of his force, leading them on and sus- 
taining them by his gallant bearing." 

Gen. Price's report is more accurate and soldier- 
like, but he says that after several "severe and 
bloody conflicts" had ensued, and the battle had been 
conducted with the "greatest gallantry and vigor on 
both sides for more than five hours, the enemy re- 



182 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. ' 

treated in great confusion, leaving their Comman- 
der-in-Chief, Gen. Lyon, dead upon the battlefield, 
over 500 killed and a great number wounded." He 
claims that his forces numbered 5,221 officers and 
men, of whom 156 were killed and 517 wounded. 
This would make the loss of his whole division of 
5,000 men 673, or about the same lost by the 1st Mo. 
and the 1st Kan., with these two regiments still 
maintaining their position, while the enemy retired. 

It seems difficult to understand why, if the enemy 
"retreated in great confusion," as reported by Mc- 
Culloch and Price, the several thousand horsemen 
who did little or nothing during the battle were not 
let loose to complete the ruin of the Union forces. 
No matter how poorly armed or disciplined these 
might have been, their appearance on the flank of 
the retiring column would have been fatal to any 
orderly retreat such as was conducted. The univer- 
sal testimony of the Union officers and soldiers is 
that there was no enemy in sight when they started 
to leave the field, and that they suffered no molesta- 
tion whatever, though they halted two miles from 
the field and in plain sight for some time. 

It also passes comprehension that this horde of 
irregular horsemen were not employed during the 
long hours of the battle in making some diversion in 
the rear of the Union army. 

Both Price and McCulloch seem to have had their 
attention so fully engrossed in bringing up new regi- 
ments to keep Lyon from breaking thru their lines 
and reaching their trains that they had no oppor- 
tunity to give orders or organize manuvers by the 
horsemen, and nobody seems to have suggested to 
the mounted men that they could employ their time 



THE AFTERMATH OP WILSON'S CREEK. 183 

better than by standing back and watching the prog- 
ress of the terrible conflict between the two opposing 
lines of infantry. 

It appears that the Union officers in the council 
called by Gen. Sturgis were not at all unanimous for 
retreat. Capt. Sweeny, altho severely wounded, ve- 
hemently insisted upon pursuing the enemy, and 
Capt. Gordon Granger, also severely wounded, rode 
up to Sturgis, pointed out that there was not a man 
in sight and that the fire could be seen from where 
the retreating foe was burning his wagons, and he 
urged the pursuit so vigorously that Sturgis had to 
repeat his order for him to leave the field. 

Col. Sigel, in his report made at Rolla eight days 
after the battle, made a long and labored explanation 
of his operations during the day . He thus explained 
his failure to do more : 

In order to understand clearly our actions and our fate, you 
will allow me to state the following facts: 

1st. According to orders, it was the duty of this brigade to 
attack the enemy in the rear and to cut off his retreat, which 
order I tried to execute, whatever the consequences might be. 

2d. The time of service of the 5th Regiment Mo. Volun- 
teers had expired before the battle. I had induced them, 
company by company, not to leave us in the most critical and 
dangerous moment, and had engaged them for the time of 
eight days, this term ending on Friday, the 9th, the day be- 
fore the battle. 

3d. The 3d Regiment, of which 400 three-months men had 
been dismissed, was composed for the greatest part of re- 
cruits, who had not seen the enemy before and were only in- 
sufficiently drilled. 

4th. The men serving the pieces and the drivers consisted 
of infantry taken from the 3d Regiment and were mostly re- 
cruits, who had had only a few days' instruction. 

5th. About two-thirds of our officers had left us. Some 
companies had no officers at all; a great pity, but a conse- 
quence of the system of the three months' service. 

Later, when Gen. Sigel was seeking promotion, 
Maj. Schofield, then a Brigadier-General, sent the 
following communication to Gen. Halleck: 



184 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 



St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 13, 1862. 
Maj.-Gen. Halleck, Commanding Department of the Mis- 
souri. 

General: The question of the merits of Brig.-Gen. Franz 
Sigel as a commander having assumed such shape as to deeply 
involve the interests of the service, I deem it my duty to make 
a statement of facts which came to my knowledge during the 
campaign of last Summer in the Southwest, ending in the 
death of Gen. Lyon and the retreat of his army from Spring- 
field. 

Soon after the capture of Camp Jackson, in May, Gen. Lyon 
sent Col. Sigel, with his two regiments of infantry and two 
batteries of artillery, to the southwestern part of the State, 
by way of Rolla, to cut off the retreat of Price's force which 
he (Lyon) was about to drive from Boonville. Col. Sigel 
passed beyond Springfield, reaching a point not far from the 
Kansas line, and on the main road used by Price's men in 
their movement south to join him. Here he left a single com- 
pany of infantry in a small town, with no apparent object, 
unless that it might fall in the hands of the enemy, which it 
did the next day (5th of July). Sigel met Price the next day, 
and fought the celebrated "battle of Carthage." Sigel had 
about two regiments of infantry, well armed and equipped, 
most of the men old German soldiers, and two good batteries 
of artillery. Price had about twice Sigel's number of men, 
but most of them mounted, armed with shotguns and com- 
mon rifles, and entirely without organization and discipline, 
and a few pieces of almost worthless artillery. Sigel retreat- 
ed all day before this miserable rabble, contenting himself 
with repelling their irregular attacks, which he did with per- 
fect ease whenever they vetured to make them. The loss on 
either side was quite insignificant. Price and McCulloch were 
thus permitted to join each other absolutely without opposi- 
tion; Sigel, who had been sent there to prevent their junc- 
tion, making a "masterly retreat." 

Several days before the battle of Wilson's Creek it was 
ascertained beyond a doubt that the enemy's strength was 
about 22,000 men, with at least 20 pieces of artillery, while 
our force was only about 5,000. About the 7th of August the 
main body of the enemy reached Wilson's Creek, and Gen. 
Lyon decided to attack him. The plan of attack was freely 
discussed between Gen. Lyon, the members of his staff. Col. 
Sigel, and several oflficers of the Regular Army. Col. Sigel, 
apparently anxious for a separate command, advocated the 
plan of a divided attack. All others, I believe, opposed it. 

On the 8th of August the plan of a single attack was 
adopted, to be carried out on the 9th. This had to be post- 
poned on account of the exhaustion of part of our troops. 
During the morning of the 9th Col. Sigel had a long interview 
with Gen. Lyon, and prevailed upon him to adopt his plan, 
which led to the mixture of glory, disgrace and disaster of 
the ever-memorable 10th of August. Sigel, in attempting to 
perform the part assigned to himself, lost his artillery, lost 
his infantry, and fled alone, or nearly so, to Springfield, arriv- 
ing there long before the battle was ended. Yet he had al- 
most nobody killed or wounded. One piece of his artillery 
and 500 or 600 infantry were picked up and brought in by a 
company of Regular cavalry. No effort was made by Sigel or 



THE AFTERMATH OF WILSON'S CREEK. 185 



any of his officers to rally their men and join Lyon's Division, 
altho the battle raged furiously for hours after Sigel's rout, 
and most of his men in their retreat passed in rear of Lyon's 
line of battle. 

On our return to Springfield, at about 5 o'clock p. m., Maj. 
Sturgis yielded the command to Col. Sigel, and the latter, 
after consultation with many of the officers of the army, de- 
cided to retreat toward Rolla; starting at 2 o'clock a. m. in 
order that the column might be in favorable position for de- 
fense before daylight. At the hour appointed for the troops 
to move I found Col. Sigel asleep in bed, and his own brigade, 
which was to be the advance guard, making preparations to 
cook their breakfast. It was 4 o'clock before I could get 
them started. Sigel remained in command three days, kept 
his two regiments in front all the time, made little more than 
ordinary day's marches, but yet did not get in camp until 10, 
and on one occasion 12 o'clock at night. On the second day 
he kept the main column waiting, exposed to the sun on a drj-- 
prairie, while his own men killed beef and cooked their 
breakfast. They finished their breakfast at about noon, and 
then began their day's march. 

The fatigue and annoyance to the troops soon became so 
intolerable that discipline was impossible. The officers, there- 
fore, almost unanimously demanded a change. Maj. Sturgis, 
in compliance with the demand, assumed the command. 

My position as Gen. Lyon's principal stafC officer gave mc 
very favorable opportunities for judging of Gen. Sigel's merits 
as an officer, and hence I appreciate his good as well as his 
bad qualities more accurately than most of those who pre- 
sume to judge him. Gen. Sigel, in point of theoretical educa- 
tion, is far above the average of commanders in this country. 
He has studied with great care the science of strategy, and 
seems thoroly conversant with the campaigns of all the great 
captains, so far as covers their main strategic features, and 
also seems familiar with the duties of the staff; but in tac- 
tics, great and small logistics, and discipline he is greatly de- 
ficient. These defects are so apparent as to make it abso- 
lutely impossible for him to gain the confidence of American 
officers and men, and entirely unfit him for a high command 
in our army. "While I do not condemn Gen. Sigel in the un- 
measured terms so common among many, but on the con- 
trary see in him many fine qualities, I would do less than my 
duty did I not enter my protest against the appointment to a 
high command in the army of a man who, whatever may be 
his merits, I know cannot have the confidence of the troops he 
is to command. 

I am. General, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

J. M. SCHOFIELD, 
Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers. 

This was accompanied by a statement embodying 
the same facts and signed by substantially all the 
higher officers who had been with Lyon. 

At the first halt of the army, about two miles from 
the battlefield, while the dead and wounded were 



186 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

being gathered up, it was discovered that Gen. 
Lyon's body had been left behind. The Surgeon and 
another officer volunteered to take an ambulance and 
return to the battlefield for it. They were received 
graciously by Gen. McCulloch; the body was de- 
livered to them and they reached Springfield with it 
shortly after dark. The Surgeon made an attempt 
to embalm it by injecting arsenic into the veins, but 
decomposition, owing to exposure to the hot sun, had 
progressed too far to render it practicable, and they 
were compelled to leave it when the army moved off. 

Mrs. Phelps, wife of the member of Congress from 
that District, and a true Union woman, obtained it 
and had it placed in a wooden coffin, which was 
hermetically sealed in another one of zinc. Fearing 
that it might be molested by the Confederate troops 
when they entered the city, Mrs. Phelps had the cof- 
fin placed in an out-door cellar and covered with 
straw. Later she took an opportunity of having it 
secretly buried at night. 

Thinking that the remains had been brought on, 
Mr. Danford Knowlton, of New York, a cousin, and 
Mr. John B. Hasler, of Webster, Mass., a brother-in- 
law of Gen. Lyon, came on at the instance of the Con- 
necticut relatives to obtain the remains. Not find- 
ing them at St. Louis, they went forward to Rolla, 
where Col. Wyman furnished them with an ambu- 
lance, with which they proceeded to Springfield un- 
der a flag of truce. They were kindly received by 
Gen. Price, and also by Gen. Parsons, whose brigade 
was encamped on the ground where the body was 
buried, and exhuming it, brought it to St. Louis. 
The city went into mourning, and the remains were 
conducted by a military and civic procession to the 



THE AFTERMATH OP' WILSON'S CREEK. 187 

depot, where they were delivered to the Adams Ex- 
press Company to be conveyed East under an escort 
of officers and enlisted ni'^n. At every station on 
the road crowds gathered fco pay their tribute of re- 
spect to the deceased hero, and distinguished honors 
were paid at Cincinnati, Pittsburg, New York, and 
Hartford. The body was taken to Eastford, Conn., 
where the General was born, and in the presence of 
a large assemblage was interred in a grave beside 
his parents, in accordance with the desire the Gen- 
eral expressed while in life. 

Upon opening Lyons' will it was found that he had 
bequeathed all his savings, prudent investments and 
property, amounting to about $50,000, to the Gov- 
ernment to aid it in the prosecution of the war for 
its existence. 

Aug. 25, Gen. Fremont issued congratulatory or- 
ders, in which he said : 

The General Commanding laments, in sympathy with the 
country, the loss of the indomitable Gen. Nathaniel Lyon. 
His fame cannot be better eulogized than in these words in 
the official report of his gallant successor, Maj. Sturgis, U. S. 
Cavalry: "Thus gallantly fell as true a soldier as ever drew 
a sword; a man whose honesty of purpose was proverbial; 
a noble patriot, and one who held his life as nothing where 
his country demanded it of him. Let us emulate his prowess 
and undying devotion to his duty!" 

The order also permitted the regiments and other 
organizations engaged to put "Springfield" on their 
colors, and directed that the order should be read 
at the head of every company in the Department of 
Missouri. 

Dec. 30, 1861, Congress passed a joint resolution, 
in which it said : 

That Congress deems it just and proper to enter upon its 
records a recognition of the eminent and patriotic services 
of the late Brig.-Qen. Nathaniel Lyon. The country to whose 



188 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 



service he devoted his life will guard and preserve his fame 
as a part of its own glory. 

2. That the thanks of Congress are hereby given to the 
brave officers and soldiers who, under the command of the 
late Gen. Lyon, sustained the honor of the flag, and achieved 
victory against overwhelming numbers at the battle of 
Springfield, in Missouri, and that, in order to commemorate 
an event so honorable to the country and to themselves, it 
is ordered that each regiment engaged shall be authorized 
to bear upon its colors the word "Springfield," embroidered 
in letters of gold. And the President of the United States is 
hereby requested to cause these resolutions to be read at the 
head of every regiment in the Army of the United States. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE Union commanders were naturally very 
apprehensive that as soon as Price and Mc- 
Culloch realized that the field had been aban- 
doned they would precipitate upon them their im- 
mense horde of vengeful horsemen. Such was not 
the case. Nothing tells so eloquently of the severity 
of the blow which Lyon had dealt his enemies than 
that it was two whole days before Price and McCul- 
loch were in a frame of mind to move forward 10 
miles and occupy Springfield, the goal of their cam- 
paign. This delay was golden to the Union com- 
manders, hampered as they were by hosts of Union 
refugees fleeing from the rebel wrath, and incum- 
bering the column with all manner of vehicles and 
great droves of stock. Considering the activity of 
the Missourians in guerrilla warfare, and the 
vicious way they usually harried the Union forces, 
it is incomprehensible, except on the theory that the 
Confederate forces had been stunned into torpor 
by the blow. The Union column was able to make 
its long retreat of 125 miles from Springfield to 
Rolla and traverse an exceedingly rough country 
cut up every few miles by ravines, gorges and 
creeks, without the slightest molestation from the 
six or eight thousand horsemen whom McCulloch 
had complained were so much in the way during 
the battle on the banks of Wilson's Creek. 

Gen. McCulloch made a number of lengthy and 
labored explanations to the Confederate War De- 

189 



190 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

partment of his failure to make any pursuit, but in 
the light of facts that then should have been attain- 
able none of these was at all satisfactory. He ad- 
mits that he did not enter Springfield until after his 
scouts had brought him satisfactory assurances that 
the Union army had abandoned the town. Aug. 12 
he advanced to Springfield, and issued proclama- 
tions to the people announcing himself as their de- 
liverer, and that his army "by great gallantry and 
determined courage" had entirely "routed the enemy 
with great slaughter." 

If he expected to be received and feted as a lib- 
erator he was sorely disappointed, and in one of his 
letters he says in connection with his customary 
uncomplimentary allusions to Gen. Price's army, 
"and from all I can see we had as well be in Boston 
as far as the friendly feelings of the inhabitants are 
concerned." 

The truth was that the advance of the Confeder- 
ates had had a blighting effect upon that large por- 
tion of the people which had hoped to remain neutral 
in the struggle. 

Gen. Lyon, with all his intensity of purpose, had 
kept uppermost in mind that he was an agent of 
the law, and his mission was to enforce the law. He 
had kept his troops under excellent discipline, had 
permitted no outrages upon citizens, and had either 
paid for or given vouchers for anything his men 
needed, and had generally conducted himself in 
strict obedience of the law. His course was a crush- 
ing refutal of the inflammatory proclamations of 
Gov. Jackson and others about the Union soldiers 
being robbers, thieves, ravishers and outragers. 
Quite different was the course of the twenty or more 



A GALAXY OP NOTABLE MEN. 191 

thousand men whom Price and McCulloch led into 
Springfield. They were under very little discipline 
of any kind, and were burning with a desire to pun- 
ish and drive out of the country not merely those 
who were outspoken Unionists, but all who were not 
radical Secessionists. They knew that the senti- 
ment in Springfield and the country of which it was 
the center was in favor of the Union, and they 
wanted to stamp this out by terror. 

While this brought to their ranks a great many 
of the more pliant neutrals, it drove away from 
them a great number, and put into the ranks of the 
Union many who had been more or less inclined to 
the pro-slavery element. 

The soreness between Price and McCulloch which 
had been filmed over before the battle by Price 
subordinating himself and his troops to McCulloch, 
became more inflamed during the stay at Spring- 
field. In spite of the fact that the Missouri troops 
had done much better fighting, and suffered severer 
losses in the battle than McCulloch, he persisted in 
denouncing them as cowards, stragglers and mob- 
ites, without soldierly qualities. 

The following extracts from a report to J. P. Ben- 
jamin, Confederate Secretary of War, will show the 
temper which pervaded all his correspondence, and 
was probably still more manifest in his personal 
relations with the Missourians : 

It was at this point that I first saw the total inefficiency of 
the Missouri mounted men under Brig.-Gen. Rains. A thou- 
sand, more or less, of them composed the advance guard, and 
whilst reconnoitering the enemy's position, some eight miles 
distant from our camp, were put to flight by a single can- 
non-shot, running in the greatest confusion, without the loss 
of a single man except one who died of overheat or sunstroke, 
and bringing no reliable information as to the position or 
force of the enemy; nor were they of the slightest service as 



192 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 



scouts or spies afterwards. As evidence of this I will mention 
here the fact of the enemy being allowed to leave his posi- 
tion, six miles distant from us, 20 hours before we knew it, 
thus causing us to make a night march to surprise the enemy, 
who was at that time entirely out of our reach. A day or 
two previous to this march the Generals of the Missouri 
forces, by common consent on their part and unasked on 
mine, tendered me the command of their troops, which I 
at first declined, saying to them it was done to throw the re- 
sponsibility of ordering a retreat upon me if one had to be 
ordered for the want of supplies, their breadstuffs giving out 
about this time; and, in truth, we would have been in a starv- 
ing condition had it not been for the young corn, which was 
just in condition to be used. * * * 

The battle over, it was ascertained that the camp followers, 
whose presence I had so strongly objected to, had robbed our 
dead and wounded on the battlefield of their arms, and at 
the same time had taken those left by the enemy. I tried to 
recover the arms thus lost by my men, and also a portion of 
those taken from the enemy, but in vain. Gen. Pearce made 
an effort to get back those muskets loaned to Gen. Price be- 
fore we entered Missouri the first time. I was informed he 
recovered only 10 out of 615. I then asked that the battery 
be given me, which was one taken by the Louisiana regiment 
at the point of the bayonet. The guns were turned over by 
the order of Gen. Price, minus the horses and most of the 
harness. I would not have demanded these guns had Gen. Price 
done the Louisiana regiment justice in his official report. The 
language used by him was calculated to make the impression 
that the battery was captured by his men instead of that 
regiment. * * * 

McCulloch was a voluminous writer, both to the 
Confederate War Department and to personal and 
official friends, and few of these communications are 
without some complaint about the Missouri troops. 
Everything that he had failed to do was due to their 
inefficiency, their lack of soldierly perceptions, and 
conduct. They would give him no information, 
would not scout nor reconnoiter, and he was contin- 
ually left in the dark as to the movements of the 
enemy. When they were attacked he claimed that 
they would run away in a shameful manner. His 
dislike of Gen. Rains seemed to grow more bitter 
continually. 

Gen. Price saw a great opportunity and was 
anxious to improve it. The retreat of the Union 




GEN. SAMUEL R. CURTIS 



A GALAXY OF NOTABLE MEN. 193 

forces from Springfield opened up the whole western 
part of the State, and a prompt movement would 
carry the army forward to the Missouri River again, 
where it could control the navigation of that great 
stream, receive thousands of recruits now being as- 
sembled at places north of the river, separate the 
Unionists of Missouri from the loyal people in Kan- 
sas and Nebraska, and hearten up the Secessionists 
everywhere as much as it disheartened the Union 
people, and possibly recover St. Louis. 

He pressed this with all earnestness upon Gen. 
McCulloch, only to have it received with cold indif- 
ference or strong objections. He proposed that if 
McCulloch would undertake the movement, that he, 
Price, would continue in subordination to him and 
give him all the assistance that his troops could give. 

There is no doubt that Price was entirely right in 
his views, and that a prompt forward movement 
with such forces as he and McCulloch commanded 
would have been a very serious matter for the Union 
cause and carry discouragement everywhere to add 
to that which had been caused by the disaster of 
Bull Run. 

The relations between the two Generals constantly 
became more strained, and for the latter part of the 
two weeks which McCulloch remained at Springfield 
there was little communication between them. Gen. 
Price made good use of the time to bring in recruits 
from every part of the State which was accessible 
and to organize and discipline them for further ser- 
vice. 

At the end of a fortnight Gen. McCulloch suffered 
Gen. Pearce to return to Arkansas with his Arkan- 
sas Division, while Gen. McCulloch retired with his 



194 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

brigade of Louisianians and Texans, and Price was 
left free to do as he pleased. 

The death of Gen. Lyon at last aroused Gen. Fre- 
mont to a fever of energy to do the things that he 
should have done weeks before. He began a bom- 
bardment of Washington with telegrams asking for 
men, money and supplies, and sent dispatches of the 
most urgent nature to everybody from whom he 
could expect the least help. He called on the Gov- 
ernors of the loyal Western States to hurry to him 
all the troops that they could raise, and asked from 
Washington Regular troops, artillery, $3,000,000 for 
the Quartermaster's Department, and other require- 
ments in proportion. He made a requisition on the 
St. Louis banks for money, and showed a great deal 
of fertility of resource. 

Aug. 15, five days after the battle, President Lin- 
coln, stirred up by his fusillade of telegrams, dis- 
patched him the following: 

Washington, Aug. 15, 1861. 
To Gen. Fremont: 

Been answering* your messages ever since day before yes- 
terday. Do you receive 4:he answers? The War Department 
has notified all the Governors you designate to forward all 
available force. So telegraphed you. Have you received these 
messages? Answer immediately. A. LINCOLN. 

With relation to his conduct toward Gen. Lyon, 
Gen. Fremont afterward testified to this effect be- 
fore the Committee on the Conduct of the War : 

A glance at the map will make it apparent that Cairo was 
the point which first demanded immediate attention. The 
force under Gen. Lyon could retreat, but the position at Cairo 
could not be abandoned; the question of holding Cairo was 
one which involved the safety of the whole Northwest. Had 
the taking of St. Louis followed the defeat of Manassas, the 
disaster might have been irretrievable; while the loss of 
Springfield, should our army be compelled to fall back upon 
Rolla, would only carry with it the loss of a part of Mis- 
souri — a loss greatly to be regretted, but not irretrievable. 

Having reinforced Cape Girardeau and Ironton, by the ut- 



A GALAXY OF NOTABLE MEN. 195 

most exertions, I succeeded in getting together and embark- 
ing witli a force of 3,800 men, five days after my arrival in St. 
Louis. 

From St. Louis to Cairo was an easy day's journey by water, 
and transportation abundant. To Springfield was a week's 
march; and before I could have reached it, Cairo would have 
been taken and with it, I believe, St. Louis. 

On my arrival at Cairo I found the force under Gen. Pren- 
tiss reduced to 1,200 men, consisting mainly of a regiment 
which had agreed to await my arrival. A few miles below, 
at New Madrid, Gen. Pillow had landed a force estimated at 
20,000, which subsequent events showed was not exaggerated. 
Our force, greatly increased to the enemy by rumor, drove 
him to a hasty retreat and permanently secured the position. 

I returned to St. Louis on the 4th, having in the meantime 
ordered Col. Stephenson's regiment from Boonville, and Col. 
Montgomery's from Kansas, to march to the relief of Gen. 
Lyon. 

Immediately upon my arrival from Cairo, I set myself at 
work, amid incessant demands upon my time from every 
quarter, principally to provide reinforcements for Gen. Lyon. 

I do not accept Springfield as a disaster belonging to my 
administration. Causes wholly out of my jurisdiction had 
already prepared the defeat of Gen. Lyon before my arrival 
at St. Louis. 

The ebullition of the Secession sentiment in Mis- 
souri following the news of the battle of Wilson's 
Creek made Gen. Fremont feel that the most extra- 
ordinary measures were necessary in order to hold 
the State. He had reasons for this alarm, for the 
greatest activity was manifested in every County in 
enrolling young men in Secession companies and 
regiments. Heavy columns were threatening inva- 
sion from various points. One of these was led by 
Gen. Hardee, a Regular officer of much ability, who 
had acquired considerable fame by his translation 
of the tactics in use in the Army. He had been ap- 
poined to the command of North Arkansas, and had 
collected considerable force at Pocahontas, at the 
head of navigation on the White River, where he 
was within easy striking distance of the State and 
Lyon's line of retreat, and was threatening number- 
less direful things. 

McCuUoch and Price had sent special messengers 



196 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

to him to urge him to join his force with theirs to 
crush Lyon, or at least to move forward and cut off 
Lyon's communications with Rolla. They found 
Hardpe within 400 yards of the Missouri State line. 
He had every disposition to do as desired, but had 
too much of the Regular officer in him to be willing 
to move until his forces were thoroly organized and 
equipped. There was little in him of the spirit of 
Lyon or Price, who improvised means for doing 
what they wanted to do, no matter whether regula- 
tions permitted it or not. 

Hardee complained that though he had then 2,300 
men and expected to shortly raise this force to 5,000, 
one of his batteries had no horses and no harness, 
and none of his regiments had transportation 
enough for field service, and that all regiments were 
badly equipped and needed discipline and instruc- 
tion. 

Later, Hardee repaired many of these deficiencies, 
and was in shape to do a great deal of damage to 
the Union cause, and of this Fremont and his subor- 
dinates were well aware. Gens. Polk and Pillow, 
with quite strong forces at Columbus, were threat- 
ening Cairo and southeast Missouri, and an advance 
was made into the State by their picturesque subor- 
dinate, Gen. M. Jeff Thompson, the poet laureate of 
the New Madrid marshes and the "Swamp Fox," 
who was to emulate the exploits of Francis Marion. 
Thompson moved forward with a considerable force 
of irregular mounted men, the number of which was 
greatly exaggerated, and it was reported that behind 
him was a column commanded by Pillow, ranging 
all the way from 8,000 to 25,000. 

Gen. Fremont set an immense force of laborers to 



A GALAXY OF NOTABLE MEN. 197 

work on an elaborate system of fortification for the 
city of St. Louis, and also began the construction of 
fortifications at Cape Girardeau, Ironton, Rolla and 
Jefferson City. He employed laborers instead of 
using his troops, in order to give the latter oppor- 
tunity to be drilled and equipped. He issued the fol- 
lowing startling General Order, which produced the 
greatest commotion in the State and outside of it : 

Headquarters of the Western Department, 

St. Louis, Aug. 31, 1861. 

Circumstances in my judgment of sufficient urgency render 
it necessary that the Commanding General of this Depart- 
ment should assume the administrative power of the State. 
Its disorganized condition, the devastation of property by 
bands of murderers and marauders who infest nearly every 
County in the State, and avail themselves of the public mis- 
fortunes and the vicinity of a hostile force to gratify private 
and neighborhood vengeance, and who find an enemy wher- 
ever they find plunder, finally demand the severest measures 
to repress the daily increasing crimes and outrages which 
are driving off the inhabitants and ruining the State. In this 
condition the public safety and the success of our arms re- 
quire unity of purpose, without let or hindrance to the 
prompt administration of affairs. 

In order, therefoi'e, to suppress disorders, to maintain, as 
far as now practicable, the public peace, and to give security 
and protection to the persons and property of loyal citizens, 
I do hereby extend and declare established martial law thru- 
out the State of Missouri. The lines of the army of occu- 
pation in this State are, for the present, declared to extend 
from Leavenworth, by way of the posts of Jefferson City, 
Rolla and Ironton to Cape Girardeau, on the Mississippi 
River. All persons who shall be taken with arms in their 
hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial, and, 
if found guilty, will be shot. The property, real and per- 
sonal, of all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take 
up arms against the United States, or shall be directly proven 
to have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is 
declared to be confiscated to the public use, and their slaves, 
if any they have, are hereby declared free men. 

All persons who shall be proven to have destroyed, after 
the publication of this order, railroad tracks, bridges or tele- 
graphs, shall suffer the extreme penalty of the law. 

All persons engaged in treasonable correspondence, in giv- 
ing or procuring aid to the enemies of the United States, in 
disturbing the public tranquility by creating and circulating 
false reports or incendiary documents, are in their own inter- 
est warned that they are exposing themselves. 

All persons who have been led away from their allegiance 
are required to return to their homes forthwith; any such 
absence, without sufficient cause, will be held to be presump- 
tive evidence against them. 



198 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

The object of this declaration is to place in the hands of 
the military authorities the power to give instantaneous 
effect to existing laws, and to supply such deficiencies as the 
conditions of war demand. But it is not intended to suspend 
the ordinary tribunals of the country, where the law will be 
administered by the civil officers in the usual manner and 
with their customary authority, while the same can be peace- 
ably exercised. 

The Commanding General will labor vigilantly for the pub- 
lic welfare, and, in his efforts for their safety, hopes to obtain 
not only the acquiescence, but the active support, of the peo- 
ple of the country. J. C. FREMONT, 

Major-General Commanding. 

Another man who appeared on the scene as Colo- 
nel of the 2d Iowa was Samuel R. Curtis, an Ohio 
man, who graduated from West Point in 1831, in 
the same class with Gens. Ammen, Humphreys and 
W. H. Emory. He resigned the next year and be- 
came a prominent civil engineer in Ohio. He served 
in the Mexican War as Colonel of the 2d Ohio, and 
at the close of that struggle returned to his profes- 
sion of engineering, removed to Iowa, and at the 
outbreak of the war was a member of Congress 
from that State. He was a man of decided military 
ability, and the victory won at Pea Ridge was his 
personal triumph. He was to rise to the rank of 
Major-General and command an independent army, 
but become involved in the factional fights in Mis- 
souri and have his further career curtailed. 

Still another name which appears with increased 
frequency about this time is that of U. S. Grant, an 
Ohio man, who had graduated from West Point in 
1843, and had shown much real enterprise and sol- 
diership in Mexico, but had fallen under the disfavor 
of his commanding officers; had been compelled to 
resign while holding the rank of Captain in the 4th 
U. S., and for eight years had had a losing struggle 
in trying to make a living in civil pursuits. A happy 
accident put him at the head of the 21st 111., with 



A GALAXY OF NOTABLE MEN. 199 

which he had entered Missouri to guard the Hanni- 
bal & St. Joseph Railroad, and incidentally to dis- 
pose of one Thomas A. Harris, a very energetic and 
able man who held a Brigadier-Generalship from 
Gov. Jackson, and who was making himself particu- 
larly active in the neighborhood of that railroad. 
Grant showed much energy in chasing around for 
Harris, but had never succeeded in bringing him into 
battle, though when he left for other scenes Harris 
was hiding among the knobs of Salt River, with his 
command reduced to three enlisted men and his staff. 

Though he was out of favor with Gen. McClellan 
and many others who were directing military oper- 
ations, in some way a Brigadier-General's commis- 
sion came to U. S. Grant, and he was assigned to 
the District of Southeastern Missouri, with head- 
quarters at Cape Girardeau, where his duty was to 
hold in check the poetical M. Jeff Thompson, the 
noisy Gideon J. Pillow and the prelatic Leonidas J. 
Polk in their efforts to get control of the southeast- 
ern corner of the State and menace Cairo and St. 
Louis. 

Maj. Sturgis was promptly made a Brigadier- 
General to date from Wilson's Creek, and assigned 
to the command of Northeast Missouri, where he 
had five or six thousand men under him. 

Capt. Fred Steele had accepted a commission as 
Colonel of the 8th Iowa; Capt. Jos. B. Plummer 
shortly took the Colonelcy of a new regiment, the 
11th Mo.; Capt. Totteii became Lieutenant-Colonel 
and Colonel of the 1st Mo. Art., of which Schofield 
was Major. 

Notwithstanding the feeling of the officers and 
soldiers who had participated in the battle of Wil- 



200 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

son's Creek against Sigel, it was found so necessary 
to "recognize the Germans" and hold them strongly 
for the Union cause that he was made a Brigadier- 
General to date from May 17, 1861, which put him 
in the same class of Volunteer Brigadier-Generals as 
Hunter, Heintzelman, Fitz John Porter, Wm. B. 
Franklin, Wm. T. Sherman, C. P. Stone, Don Carlos 
Buell, John Pope, Philip Kearny, Joseph Hooker, U. 
S. Grant, John A. McClernand and A. S. Williams, 
all of whose volunteer commissions bore the date of 
May 17. This was subsequently a cause of trouble. 

There appeared also another of those figures so 
common among the State builders of this country, 
and upholding to the fullest the character of a 
leader of pioneers. James H. Lane was an Indiana 
man, son of a preacher; had served with credit as 
Colonel of Indiana troops in Mexico, and had been 
Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana and Member of 
Congress, but getting at odds with his party had mi- 
grated to Kansas, where his natural talents and 
fiery, aggressive courage speedily brought him to the 
front as the leader of the warlike Free State men, 
who resisted with force and arms the attempts of 
the Pro-slavery men to dominate the Territory. His 
instant readiness for battle and the unsparing en- 
ergy with which he prosecuted his enterprises so en- 
deared him to the Free State men that when the 
State was admitted there was no question about his 
election as her first United States Senator. 

Kansas had promptly raised two regiments, which 
had fought superbly at Wilson's Creek and after- 
wards joined in the retrograde movement to Rolla. 
This left Kansas without any protection, and the 
people naturally reasoned that in the advance upon 



A GALAXY OP NOTABLE MEN. 201 

the territory left unguarded by the retirement of 
the Union army, Gen. Price and his Missourians 
would embrace the opportunity to pay back with 
interest the debt of vengeance which had been run- 
ning since the wars of '56 and '57. Therefore Lane 
received the authority to recruit five regiments in 
Kansas, and went about his work with his charac- 
teristic energy. 

The 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Kan. at once began 
organizing, receiving many recruits from the young 
Union men who had been forced to leave Missouri, 
and within a week or more after the battle of Wil- 
son's Creek Gen. Lane had mustered an effective 
force of about 2,500 men, who had received some 
clothing and equipment and much instruction from 
the Regular officers and men at Forts Scott, Riley 
and Leavenworth. 

With these forces in hand under a man of Lane's 
well-known character, neither Gen. Price nor his 
men had much disposition to meddle with Kansas, 
even if the General had not other and more com- 
prehensive views. 

Gen. Price was not waiting for Fremont's plans 
to develop before executing his own. He employed 
the two weeks after the battle in diligently organ- 
izing his men, and Aug. 26 left Springfield at the 
head of a column of about 10,000 enthusiastic young 
Missourians, who had in that brief time made great 
progress in soldiership. He caused great alarm at 
Fort Scott, by pointing the head of his column to- 
ward that place, and arriving within 10 miles of it 
on the night of the 1st of September, sent Rains's 
Division, which was made up of men from south- 
west Missouri, forward to reconnoiter. Rains's 



202 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

advance of 30 mounted men under Capt. Rector 
Johnson pushed forward to within sight of Fort 
Scott, on the morning of Sept. 1, and captured a 
drove of 80 Government mules which had been sent 
out to graze on the prairies. They also carried off 
all the able-bodied men that they could find on their 
line of march. Two companies of the newly-raised 
Kansas cavalry promptly attacked Johnson's com- 
mand, which fell back across the line toward the 
main body, encamped at Dry Wood. Gen. Lane 
gathered up such of his volunteers as were in reach, 
and moved to Dry Wood, where he offered Gen. 
Rains battle, but the latter declined to be drawn 
from the shelter in the woods in which he had form- 
ed his lines, and Lane did not think it was prudent 
to attack a force the strength of which he could not 
ascertain. 

A noisy, long-range skirmish ensued, which ter- 
minated at nightfall by Lane withdrawing his forces 
to Fort Scott. The next day, leaving Col. Jennison 
with 400 cavalry in Fort Scott, Lane crossed the 
Little Osage and threw up fortifications on its banks 
to oppose Price's further advance and give him bat- 
tle should he attempt to move into Kansas. 

Gen. Price declined to fight him in his chosen po- 
sition, but drew his forces together and started to 
execute his cherished plan of advancing to the Mis- 
souri River and forming connection there with the 
troops which Gens. Harris and Green had been rais- 
ing in northern Missouri, not seriously molested in 
their work by the Union forces under Gens. Pope 
and Sturgis. The action at Dry Wood was made the 
most of by the Secessionists, who claimed a defeat 
for the terror-striking **Jim" Lane. The casualties 



A GALAXY OP NOTABLE MEN. 203 

were insignificant for the forces engaged, as there 
were but five killed and 12 wounded on the Union 
side, and four killed and 16 wounded on the Confed- 
erate. 

It was feared that after Gen. Price had moved 
forward to the Missouri River McCulloch would 
come up from Arkansas and take Fort Scott, which 
he had been authorized to do by the Confederate 
Secretary of War ; but McCulloch seems to have had 
other ideas, and spent the weeks in inaction. 

The situation of the Union men of southwest Mis- 
souri became gloomy in the extreme. The whole 
country was overrun with guerrilla bands hunting 
down the Union men, and not infrequently shooting 
them on sight. 

Gen. Fremont had seriously alarmed Polk, Pillow 
and Thompson by his showy reinforcement of Cairo 
with 3,800 men. Though Pillow was reputed to have 
about 20,000 troops at his disposal, he was seized 
with a great fear, wrote to Hardee at Pocahontas 
urging him to come to his help, and limited the 
sphere of the operations of his dashing lieutenant, 
M. Jeff Thompson. Maj.-Gen, Polk seems to have 
also been deeply impressed, for he wrote to Pillow 
urging him to put his troops in trenches in the 
neighborhood of New Madrid, strongly fortify that 
place and stretch a chain across the river to prevent 
the passage of gunboats. 

Then Polk had another tremor, and ordered Pil- 
low to evacuate New Madrid at once, taking his men 
and heavy guns across the river to the strong works 
of Fort Pillow. Pillow, however, as insubordinate 
and self-seeking as he had been in the Mexican War, 
and thirsting for the distinction of taking Cape Gi- 



204 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

rardeau, did not obey his superior's orders, but re- 
tained his forces at New Madrid. He had the au- 
dacity to write to his superior, "Withdraw your 
control over me for a few hours." 

Pillow, merely hanging on to the remotest fringe 
of the State, assumed the title of "Liberator of Mis- 
souri," and his correspondence, orders and procla- 
mations were headed, "Headquarters Army of Lib- 
eration." 

About the same time an old acquaintance, Lieut- 
Gov. Thos. C. Reynolds, he of the ready pen and 
fluent phrases, taking advantage of a hasty journey 
of Gov. Jackson to Richmond, assumed full guberna- 
torial powers, set up his capital in Pillow's camp at 
New Madrid, and proceeded to clothe him with the 
most extraordinary prerogatives. He made himself 
the whole of the "Sovereign people of Missouri," and 
issued a proclamation withdrawing the State from 
the Union. He said that "disregarding the forms 
and considering only realities, I view an ordinance 
for the separation from the North and union with 
the Confederate States as a mere outward expres- 
sion giving notice to others of an act already con- 
summated in the hearts of the people." He then 
proceeded to establish a military despotism which 
made the worst of what had been said of Fremont 
pale before it. He clothed all the military command- 
ers — not merely those of Missouri provided by the 
odious Military Act, but such Confederate comman- 
ders as Pillow and Hardee, who should enter the 
State — with a most absolute power over the lives 
and property of the people of Missouri. 

The following oath was prescribed which all citi- 
zens were to be compelled to take by any officer of 



A GALAXY OF NOTABLE MEN. 205 

the Missouri State Guards or Confederate army who 
might come upon them : 



Know all men, that I , of the County of 



State of Missouri, do solemnly swear that I will bear true 
faith and allegiance to the State of Missouri, and support the 
Constitution of the State, and that I will not give aid, comfort, 
information, protection or encouragement to the enemies or 
opposers of the Missouri State Guards, or their allies, the 
armies of the Confederate States, upon the penalty of death 
for treason. 

In the meanwhile Gen. Price, more practical and 
capable than any of them, with true military fore- 
sight was rushing his troops toward the Missouri 
River, gaining recruits and arousing enthusiasm 
with every day's march. Leading his own advance 
he hurried towards Warrensburg, the County seat 
of Johnson County, about 30 miles south of Lexing- 
ton, where he hoped to seize about $100,000 depos- 
ited in the State banks. He arrived too late for 
this, however, because the Union troops had the 
same object in view, and had anticipated him, carry- 
ing the money off with them and leaving behind 
some very clever caricatures, drawn by the skillful 
artists among the Germans, which irritated Price 
and his men more than it was reasonable they 
should. 

The Union commander at Warrensburg, Col. Ev- 
erett Peabody, of the 13th Mo., had kept himself 
well informed as to Price's movements, and re- 
treated from Warrensburg to Lexington, burning 
the bridges after he had crossed them. He sent no- 
tice to Fremont of Price's movements. 

Col. James A. Mulligan, with the 23d 111., an Irish 
regiment, was ordered forward to Lexington to Col. 
Peabdy's assistance, and to hold the place to the 
last, 



206 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

The 1st 111. Cav., Col. Thos, A. Marshall, and frag- 
ments of Home Guard regiments in process of or- 
ganization, were drawn back to Lexington, in face 
of the advance of Price's columns. There was also 
a mongrel field battery, consisting of one 4-pounder, 
three 6-pounders, one 12-pounder and two little 
4-inch howitzers, the latter being useless on account 
of having no shells. 

The cavalry was only armed with pistols and 
sabers. 

No official Union reports are on file as to the 
affair, but the total strength of the garrison is given 
unofficially at from 2,640 to 3,300. The correspond- 
ent of the Missouri Republican gives these figures: 

23d 111., Col. Mulligan 800 

Home Guards, Col. White BOO 

13th Mo., Col. Peabody 840 

1st 111. Cav., Col. Marshall 500 

Total 2,640 

Col. Mulligan assumed command of the whole 
by seniority of commission. He was an Irishman 
with all his race's pugnacity, and also its efferves- 
cence. He was born in Utica, N. Y., in 1830, had 
graduated from a Roman Catholic college, studied 
law, and edited the principal Roman Catholic paper 
in the West, "The Tablet." 

Lexington, which is the County seat of Lafayette 
County, was a very important place in frontier times, 
and the center of the great hemp-growing region 
of Missouri. It is situated on the south bank of the 
Missouri River, about 300 miles by its course above 
St. Louis, and about 84 miles below Kansas City by 
water, or 42 miles by rail. It consisted of two 
towns. Old and New Lexington, about a mile apart, 



A GALAXY OF NOTABLE MEN. 207 

having altogether about 5,000 people. It had some 
manufactories and two or three colleges, one of 
which, the Masonic College, situated on high ground 
between Old and New Lexington, a half mile from 
the river, was taken by Col. Mulligan for his posi- 
tion, which he proceeded to fortify with high, sub- 
stantial works to accommodate 10,000 men, inclos- 
ing about 15 acres on the summit of the bluffs. Be- 
tween 2,000 and 3,000 horses and other animals of 
the trains were gathered inside this inclosure. 

A week before Col. Mulligan's arrival, on Sept. 9, 
Gov. Jackson had briefly set up his Capital there, 
and held a session of that portion of the Legislature 
which adhered to him. The approach of Col. Pea- 
body caused a precipitate adjournment, and there 
was left behind $800,000 in coin, which was buried 
in the cellar of the college, with the great seal of the 
State of Missouri. 

At dawn on Sept. 12 Gen. Price, riding with his 
advance, Rains's Division, struck the Union pickets 
stretching through the cornfields outside of Lexing- 
ton, but though he brought up all his infantry 
within reach, and McDonald's, Guibor's, and Clark's 
batteries, his heads of columns were beaten back 
everywhere by the stubborn Union soldiers, who 
had been waiting three days for him, and he wisely 
decided to withdraw two or three miles and wait for 
the rest of his forces and ammunition wagons to 
come up. 

Col. Mulligan telegraphed to Col. Jeff C. Davis, at 
Jefferson City — 120 miles away — the fact of Price's 
advance and his need for help, and Davis sent the 
news to Fremont, who ordered forward three regi- 
ments and two batteries to Davis, and directed him 



208 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

to reinforce Mulligan, which he could do by rail and 
river. Fremont also sent orders to Pope and Sturgis 
to help Mulligan out, but there was not much ur- 
gency in the orders, and each of his subordinates 
seems to have taken his own time and way of obey- 
ing or not obeying. 

Jeff C. Davis had at that time something over 
5,000 men at Jefferson City, and subsequent rein- 
forcements raised this number, it was claimed, to 
11,000 — certainly to 8,000. Davis afterward became 
a valuable division and corps commander, but he 
certainly did not show up well in this transaction. 
He, also, had too much of the "Regular" in him. He 
complained of a lack of wagons and harness, com- 
missary supplies and ammunition, to enable him to 
make a forward movement. He had none of the 
spirit of Lyon and Price, to impress teams and sup- 
plies and make means to do what ought to be done. 

It was harvest time in that fertile part of Mis- 
souri, and his army need not have suffered for food, 
wherever he went. But all that he did was to send 
forward a couple of regiments to occupy points and 
prevent the Secessionists from crossing the river at 
those places. They had all either crossed or found 
other unguarded places. 

Pope showed similar incapacity. He had 5,000 
men in easy reach of Lexington, but he was more 
engrossed in the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad and 
in matters in Keokuk and Canton than in Lexing- 
ton. He telegraphed to Gen. Fremont that he would 
move forward 4,000 men to Lexington, and actually 
did send forward Lieut.-Col. Scott with the 3d Iowa 
and Robt. F. Smith with the 16th 111., with instruc- 
tions to form a junction at Liberty, in Clay County, 



A GALAXY OF NOTABLE MEN. 209 

and then proceed to Lexington. Lieut.-Col. Scott 
pushed on to the Blue Mills Landing on the Mis- 
souri River, where he came in contact with a large 
Secession force. Six regiments of the Missouri 
State Guard were there, making their way to Lex- 
ington. 

D. R. Atchison, former Senator from Missouri, 
President of the United States Senate, and of much 
notoriety during the Kansas and Nebraska troubles, 
took command of this force and attacked Col. Scott, 
compelling rapid retreat. Atchison reported to Price 
the usual story about the small number under his 
command and the large force of the Yankees routed, 
but this does not harmonize with his praises to Cols. 
Sanders, Patten, Childs, Cundliff, Wilfley, and Maj. 
Cause, each of whom he says handled his "regiment" 
with great gallantry. 

Col. Smith met Col. Scott in his retreat, learned 
from him the overwhelming force in front, and re- 
treated with him, so that portion of the relief came 
to naught. 

Gen. Sturgis moved forward from Mexico with 
about 4,000 men and reached the Missouri River, 
but finding no means for crossing, and surveying the 
host that was gathered around the city, retired with 
such haste as to leave his tents and camp equipage. 

Gen. Price proceeded with astonishing delibera- 
tion, when we consider that he must have known 
that Fremont had something over 20,000 men within 
striking distance. 

Retreat was still open for Col. Mulligan, as he 
had two steamboats at his command, but he felt that 
his orders obliged him to remain in Lexington for 
the protection of much public property which had 



210 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

been gathered there, and that as his situation was 
known to Gen. Fremont, relief would be speedily 
sent to him. 

In the meantime, every hour had swelled Gen. 
Price's forces. Some of the Secession writers have 
claimed that there were actually as many as 38,000 
men gathered in his camps. Of course, a large pro- 
portion of his force was useless unless to help beat 
off a relieving column, because, owing to the small 
extent of the position occupied by Col. Mulligan, 
only a limited number of men could be employed 
against it, and 10,000 were as effective as 100,000. 
A very large portion of Gen. Price's forces were men 
who flocked to his camp as to a picnic or a barbecue, 
because something was going on, and they fell away 
from him again when he began a backward move- 
ment, as rapidly as they came. 

Then ensued for six days a very strange battle. 
Swarms of Missourians crowded the ravines in the 
bluffs, behind trees, stones, the walls, fences and 
chimneys of the houses, and whatever else would af- 
ford adequate protection, and kept up an incessant 
fusillade upon the garrison safely ensconced behind 
thick banks of earth. When a squad occupying a se- 
cure shelter grew tired, or had fired away all its am- 
munition, it would go back to camp for dinner, when 
their places would be taken by others eager to share 
in the noise and excitement and have a story to take 
back home of the number of Yankees who had fallen 
under their deadly aim. If all these stories of the 
men "who had been at Lexington" could have been 
true, more men would have been sent to the grave 
than answered Lincoln's call for 500,000 volunteers. 
The artillerists were as enthusiastic and industrious 



A GALAXY OF NOTABLE MEN. 211 

as the men with "Yager" rifles and shotguns, and 
banged away with unflagging zeal and correspond- 
ing lack of mortality. The walls of the college were 
bady scarred, but the worst effect was that an oc- 
casional shell would take effect among the horses, 
and drop on the ground carcasses which speedily pu- 
trified under the hot sun, and added an unbearable 
stench to the other hardships of the garrison. 

This went on day and night, for the moon was 
bright, and there was no reason why a man who had 
powder and shot, and could not get an opportunity 
at any of the coverts during the day, should not put 
in pleasantly a few hours at night. 

Naturally a rain of bullets, even though they 
might hit rarer than lightning strokes, had a wear- 
ing effect on the garrison. 

While this noisy fusillade by the mob of truculent 
bushwhackers was going on, there were much more 
soldierly occurrences by the more soldierly men on 
both sides. 

There were sorties and counter-sorties in which 
the greatest gallantry was displayed on both sides, 
and in which substantially all the losses occurred. 
The Secessionists captured a Union flag in one of 
these, which was balanced by a Secession flag cap- 
tured by the 1st 111. Cav. Owing to the great supe- 
riority of the enemy in numbers, the finality of all 
these was against the garrison, which was every- 
where pushed back from the edges of the bluff, and 
also from some buildings on the bluffs overlooking 
the works. 

Gen. Rains's Division invested the eastern and 
northeastern position of Mulligan's works; Gen. 
Parsons the southwestern, with Clark's Division, 



212 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

commanded by Col. Congreve Jackson, and Steen's 
Division as reserves. 

Col. Rives, commanding Gen. Slack's Division, oc- 
cupied the west along the river bank and captured 
the steamboats by which Mulligan could escape 
or receive reinforcements; Gens. Harris and Mc- 
Bride extended this line along the north, cutting off 
the garrison from all access to the river and water. 
This became very effective in forcing surrender, as 
not only the men but the animals suffered terribly 
from thirst. 

By the morning of Sept. 18, six days after the 
first encounter with the pickets. Gen. Price had all 
his forces up and properly disposed about the garri- 
son. He and his principal subordinates were very 
weary of the noisy and fruitless bushwhacking, and 
eager for something more conclusive. 

Orders were issued for the whole line to close in 
upon the Union works, and they were gallantly re- 
sponded to and met as gallant resistance from the 
beleaguered garrison in the 52 hours of stubborn 
fighting which ensued. Col. Congreve Jackson, com- 
manding Gen. John B. Clark's Third Division, re- 
ported that he succeeded in getting to within 450 
yards of the College. 

Col. Benj. A. Rives, commanding Gen. Slack's 
Fourth Division, says that after having been driven 
back by a gallant counter-assault, he got within 100 
yards of the College. 

Gen. Steen lays claim for his division of having 
defeated Lieut.-Col. Scott, after which he passed 
back into the reserve. 

Gen. Mosby M. Parsons, commanding the Sixth 
Division, says that he reached to within 500 yards 



A GALAXY OP NOTABLE MEN. 213 

of the College, and also crossed the river with 3,000 
men, to repel Sturgis, who "retired in confusion, 
leaving 200 of their tents." 

Gen. J. H. McBride, commanding the Seventh 
Division, says that he succeeded in forming a breast- 
work with hemp bales "100 yards from the enemy's 
works." 

Gen. Jas. S. Rains says that with the Second Di- 
vision, numbering 3,025 rank and file, he succeeded 
in gaining a position 350 yards north and 500 yards 
east of the College. 

Gen. Thos. A. Harris does not give the point he 
reached, but the concurrent testimony is that he was 
the closest of all, and is supported by the fact that 
his division sustained the heaviest loss. To his di- 
vision is due the credit of the famous device of hemp 
bales as advancing breastworks. 

Gen. Price quietly appropriates the credit for the 
device to himself, saying in his report : 

On the morning of the 20th inst. I caused a number of 
hemp bales to be transported to the river hights, where 
moveable breastworks were speedily constructed out of them 
by Cols. Harris, McBride, Rives and Maj. Winston, and their 
respective commands. Capt. Kelly's battery was ordered at 
the same time to the position occupied by Gen. Harris's force, 
and quickly opened an effective fire under the direction of its 
gallant Captain, * * ♦ 

These demonstrations, particularly the continued advance 
of the hemp breastworks, which were as efficient as the cot- 
ton bales at New Orleans, quickly attracted attention and 
excited and alarmed the enemy. They were, however, re- 
pulsed in every instance by the unflinching courage and fixed 
determination of the men. 

Gen. Harris says in his report to Gen. Price : "I 
then directed Capt. Geo. A. Turner, of my staff, to 
request of you 132 bales of hemp, which you prompt- 
ly credited. 

"I directed the bales to be wet in the river to pro- 
tect them against the casualties of fire of our troops 



214 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

and the enemy's, and soon discovered that the wet- 
ting was so materially increasing the weight as to 
prevent our men in their exhausted condition from 
rolling them to the crest of the hill. I then adopted 
the idea of wetting the hemp after it had been trans- 
ported to this position," 

The credit has also been stoutly claimed for Col. 
Thomas Hinkle, of Wellington County, Mo., who 
two years later was killed in command of a guerrilla 
organization. No matter whose, the idea was sin- 
gularly effective, and despite the most gallant ef- 
forts of the garrison, the hemp bales were steadily 
rolled nearer, until by 2 o'clock in the afternoon of 
the 20th they were in places as close as from 50 to 
75 yards of the Union works. At this distance it 
would be easy to mass an overpowering force behind 
their cover to rush upon and instantly overwhelm 
the garrison. 

The garrison, which had now been fighting for 
eight long days; which was so short of ammunition 
that most of the cartridge boxes were empty, and 
there was no supply from which to refill them; 
which was tortured with thirst, surrounded with 
hundreds of animals dying from lack of water, at 
lajst raised the white flag. 

After eight days of waiting there was no more 
sign of rescue than there was on the first, and every- 
where they could look their enemies swarmed in ap- 
parently limitless numbers. Gen. Price granted the 
garrison honorable terms. The officers were to re- 
main as prisoners of war, the men to lay down their 
arms, take the oath not to fight any more against 
Missouri, and to be sent across the river and allowed 
to go whither they would. 



A GALAXY OF NOTABLE MEN. 215 

With shrewd policy he allowed Col. Mulligan to 
retain his sword and showed him a great many civil- 
ities. Mulligan was a representative Irishman, and 
this would bear fruit in the attitude of the Irish to- 
ward the war. In his report to Gov. Jackson Gen. 
Price sums up the fruits of his victory as follows : 

Our entire loss in this series of engagements amounts to 
25 killed and 72 wounded. The enemy's loss was much 
greater. 

The visible fruits of this almost bloodless victory are very 
great — about 3.500 prisoners, among whom are Cols. Mulli- 
gan, Marshall, Peabody, White, and Grover, Maj. Van Horn, 
and 118 other commissioned officers, five pieces of artillery 
and two mortars, over 3,000 stands of infantry arms, a large 
number of sabers, about 750 horses, many sets of cavalry 
equipments, wagons, teams and ammunition, more than $100,- 
000 worth of commissary stores, and a large amount of other 
property. In addition to all this, I obtained the restoration 
of the great seal of the State and the public records, which 
had been stolen from their proper custodian, and about $900,- 
000 in monej% of which the bank at this place had been rob- 
bed, and which I have caused to be returned to it." 

Of Gen. Price's characteristics that of under-state- 
ment was certainly not one ; but there is no use cav- 
iling about this, since the disaster was in all con- 
science bad enough for the Union side. 

Col. Mulligan's official report is not included in 
the Rebellion Records. It was quite a rhetorical 
statement of the affair, with unstinted praise for his 
own regiment and Irish valor generally, much con- 
demnation for the Germans, between whom and the 
Irish there was at that time a great deal of feeling, 
and absolutely ignoring all the rest who participat- 
ed in the defense. This was particularly unjust to 
the 1st 111. Cav. While the 23d 111. had taken the 
best and strongest part of the line, the 1st 111. Cav. 
had defended the weakest and most exposed part, 
that, too, with only pistols and sabers, and had cap- 
tured the only flag taken during the siege. 



216 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

The total loss of the garrison is usually given as 
39 killed and 120 wounded. 

Probably Gen. Price in his report only mentioned 
the losses in his organized forces. If his wounded 
did not exceed 72, his men showed unusual ability in 
keeping under cover. 

While the loss did not approach that of the des- 
perate fight at Wilson's Creek, yet it was respectably 
large according to European standards, the garri- 
son having lost about six per cent before surrender- 
ing. 

Gen. Fremont announced this calamity to Wash- 
ington in the following telegrams : 

Headquarters Western Department, St. Louis, Sept. 23, 1861. 
I have a telegram from Brookfield that Lexington has fallen 
into Price's hands, he having cut off Mulligan's supply of 
water. Reinforcements 4,000 strong, under Sturgis, by cap- 
ture of ferryboats, had no means of crossing the river in time. 
Lane's force from the southwest and Davis's from the south- 
east, upwards of 11,000, could not get there in time. I am 
taking the field myself, and hope to destroy the enemy either 
before or after the junction of forces under McCulloch. Please 
notify the President immediately. J. C. FREMONT, 

Major-General Commanding. 
Col. E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant-General, Headquar- 
ters of the Army, Washington, D. C. 



Headquarters Western Department, Sept. 23, 1861. 
Nothing since my dispatch of this morning. Our loss 39 
killed, 120 wounded. Loss of enemy, 1,400 killed and 
wounded. Our non-commissioned officers and privates sworn 
and released. Commissioned officers held as prisoners. Our 
troops are gathering around the enemy. I will send you from 
the field more details in a few days. 

JOHN C. FREMONT, 
Major-General Commanding. 
Hon. S. Cameron, Secretary of War. 

The patient and much enduring President an- 
swered as follows: 

Headquarters of the Army, Washington, Sept. 2'<i, 1861. 
John C. Fremont, Major-General Commanding, St. Louis, Mo.: 
Your dispatch of this day is received. The President Is 
glad that you are hastening to the scene of action. His words 
are "He expects you to repair the disaster at Lexington with- 
out loss of time." WINFIELD SCOTT. 

Fremont began to topple to his fall. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS. 

GEN. STERLING PRICE had scored a victory 
which gave him an enduring hold upon the 
confidence and esteem of the Missourians. 
With the least means he had achieved the most suc- 
cess of any Confederate General so far. His conduct 
at the battle of Wilson's Creek had endeared him to 
the men he commanded. He exposed himself with 
utmost indifference to the fiercest firing, showed 
good judgment as to movements, was not discour- 
aged after repeated repulses, and was everywhere 
animating and encouraging the men and bringing 
them forward into line of battle. 

He sympathized with those who were wounded, 
and had them cared for, and immediately returned 
to the fighting with fresh troops. 

It is true, however, that he had shown no general- 
ship, but merely demonstrated himself a good Colo- 
nel, in leading up one regiment after another and 
putting them into the fight. 

Lexington brought an immensity of prestige to 
Price and encouragement to the Seccessionists and 
did a corresponding injury to the Union cause. It 
added immeasurably to the burdens which Presi- 
dent Lincoln had to bear. He could make Brigadier- 
and Major-Generals, but he could not endow them 
with generalship. 

The Senate could confirm them, but they were 
still more confirmed in the dull, unenterprising rou- 
tine of camp and administrative regulations. 

(217) 



218 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

The modest bars of a Captain on their shoulder 
straps had been, as it were, changed in the twinkling 
of an eye into the refulgent stars of a General, but 
they seemed to take this as a deserved tribute to 
their personal worth, rather than as an incentive 
and opportunity for the greater things which had 
made their predecessors illustrious. 

Fremont, in the palatial Brandt Mansion, for 
which the Government was paying the very unusual 
rent of $6,000 per year, was maintaining a vice 
regal court as difficultly accessible as that of any 
crowned head of Europe. His uncounted and glit- 
tering staff, which seemed to have received the Pen- 
tecostal gift of tongues — in which English was not 
included — was headed by a mysterious "Adlatus," — 
a title before unknown in America or to the diction- 
aries, and since retired to oblivion. Naturally, the 
Adlatus's command of English was limited. His 
knowledge of Missouri was even more so. Though 
commanding Missouri and dealing intensely with 
Missouri affairs, the men surrounding Fremont were 
everything but Missourians or those acquainted 
with Missouri affairs. It would have been surpris- 
ing to find one of them who could bound the State 
and name its principal rivers. 

This, too, in the midst of a multitude of able, edu- 
cated, influential Missourians who were ardent Un- 
ionists and were burning with zeal to serve the 
cause. Not one o£ them appears in the Fremont en- 
tourage. 

Gens. Pope, bturgis, Jeff C. Davis, Hunter, — all 
Regulars and trained to war; Sigel, with his pro- 
found theoretical knowledge and his large expe- 
rience ; Curtis, lately returned to the Army with his 



FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS. 219 

military training supplemented by wide experience 
in civil life; Hurlbut, the brilliant orator and poli- 
tician, were all busily engaged in something or other 
that kept them from interfering with Price while he 
lingered on the Missouri River gathering up recruits 
and stripping the Union farmers of that rich agri- 
cultural region of cattle and grain sufficient to feed 
his army during the coming Winter, and of horses 
and wagons to haul off his spoils and thoroly equip 
his army with transportation. 

The only really soldierly thing done at this time 
was by the "political General," — the erratic, dema- 
gogic, trumpet-sounding "Jim" Lane. He was com- 
manding men who had come out from home to do 
something toward fighting the war and not to stay 
in camp and be drilled into automatons. He could 
only maintain his hold on them and his ascendency 
in Kansas politics by action. 

Learning that Price had left a large stock of am- 
munition at the important little town of Osceola, 
the head of navigation on the Osage River, under 
strong guard, Lane led his brigade a swift march 
from Kansas upon the town, and succeeded in sur- 
prising the garrison, which, after a brief resistance, 
retreated and left it to Lane's mercy, whereupon he 
proceeded to not only destroy the very considerable 
quantity of stores which Price had accumulated 
there, but to burn down the town. This was an ex- 
ceedingly ill-advised ending to a piece of brilliant 
soldiership, because not only was it injustice to an 
enemy, but it was a severe blow upon Union men 
who owned full one-third of the property destroyed. 

A large number of these were engaged in the 
trade of the Southwest, for which Osceola was a dis- 



220 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

tributing center. Goods were brought up the river 
during the high water and then shipped through the 
country by wagons. The town was also the County 
seat of St. Clair County, and contained the public 
records, etc. 

Still more unfortunate was it that Lane's act was 
taken as an excuse for the Missouri guerrillas to 
retaliate upon Kansas towns and the property of the 
Union people in their own State. Lane says in his 
report: "The enemy ambushed the approaches to 
the town, and after being driven from them by the 
advance under Cols. Montgomery and Weer, they 
took refuge in the buildings of the town to annoy us. 
We were compelled to shell them out, and in doing 
so the place was burned to ashes, with an immense 
amount of stores of all descriptions. There were 15 
or 20 of them killed and wounded ; we lost none. Full 
particulars will be furnished you hereafter." 

This shows that even he felt the necessity of apolo- 
gizing for the act, but the apology is too transpar- 
ent. The fact was that the Kansas men saw an op- 
portunity to pay back some of their old scores 
against the Missourians and did not fail to im- 
prove it. 

In spite of Gen. Fremont's promise to the Presi- 
dent to "take the field himself and attempt to de- 
stroy the enemy," he moved with exceeding deliber- 
ation. It is true that he left St. Louis for Jefferson 
City, Sept. 27, a week after Mulligan's surrender, 
but that week had been well employed by Price in 
gathering up all that he could carry away and mak- 
ing ready to avoid the blow which he knew must 
fall. After arriving at Jefferson City, Fremont, in- 
stead of taking the troops which were near at hand 



FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS. 221 

and making a swift rush upon his enemy, the only 
way in which he could hope to hurt him, began the 
organization of a "grande armee" upon the Euro- 
pean model, and that which McClellan was deliber- 
ately organizing in front of Washington. 

The impatient people, who were paying the 
$3,000,000 a day which the war was now beginning 
to cost, and who had begun to murmur for results, 
were amused by stories of plans of sweeping down 
the Mississippi clear to New Orleans, taking Mem- 
phis, Vicksburg and other strongholds on the way, 
severing the Southern Confederacy in twain, so that 
it would fall into hopeless ruin. 

This was entirely possible at that time with the 
army that had been given Fremont, had it been han- 
dled with the ability and boldness of Sherman's 
March to the Sea. 

Two weeks after Mulligan's surrender Fremont 
announced the formation of this grand "Army of 
the West," containing approximately 50,000 men. 
This was grouped as follows: 

The First Division, to which Gen. David Hunter 
was assigned, consisted of 9,750 men, and was or- 
dered to take position at Versailles, about 40 miles 
southwest of Jefferson City, and became the Left 
Wing of the Army. 

Gen. John Pope was given command of the Sec- 
ond Division of 9,220 men and ordered to take sta- 
tion at Boonville, 50 miles northwest of Jefferson 
City. His position was to be the Right Wing of the 
army. 

The Third Division, 7,980 strong, was put under 
command of Gen. Franz Sigel, and made the ad- 
vance of the army, with its station at Sedalia and 
Georgetown, 64 miles west of Jefferson City. 



222 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

The Fifth Division, commanded by Gen. Asboth, 
had 6,451 men, and constituted the reserve at Tipton, 
on the railroad, 38 miles west of Jefferson City. 

The Fifth Division, 5,388 men, under Gen. Justus 
McKinstry, formed the center and was posted at 
Syracuse, five miles west of Tipton. 

Beside these. Gen. Sturgis held Kansas City with 
3,000 men and Gen. Jas. H. Lane, with 2,500 men, 
was to move in Kansas down the State line, between 
Fort Scott and Kansas City, to protect Kansas from 
an incursion in that direction, and as opportunity 
offered attack Price's flank. 

Thus, there were 38,789 effectives in the five di- 
visions, which with Sturgis's and Lane's forces made 
a total force of 44,289, not including garrisons 
which swell the total of the army to over 90,000. 

Among these Division Commanders were two 
whom Fremont had discovered and created Briga- 
dier-Generals out of his own volition, without con- 
sultation at Washington. 

These were Gens. Asboth and McKinstry. Gen. 
Alexander (Sandor) Asboth, born in 1811, was a 
Hungarian and an educated engineer, with consid- 
erable experience in and against the Austrian army. 
He had entered ardently into the Revolution of 1848, 
and built a bridge in a single night by which the 
Revolutionary army crossed and won the brilliant 
victory of Nagy Salo. He became Adjutant-General 
of the Hungarian army, and when the Revolution 
was crushed by Russian troops, escaped with Kos- 
suth into Turkey, came to this country, and became 
a naturalized citizen. He was by turns farmer, 
teacher, engineer, and manufacturer of galvanized 
articles. He sided with the Union Germans, went on 



FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS. 223 

Fremont's staff, and was appointed a Brigadier-Gen- 
eral. The Senate refused to recognize the appoint- 
ment, but in consideration of his good service he was 
rei-appointed, served creditably through the war, 
was brevetted a Major-General, and after the war 
sent as Minister to the Argentine Confederation, 
where he died in 1868. 

The other, Justus McKinstry, was born in New 
York and appointed to the Military Academy from 
Michigan, where he graduated 40th in the class of 
1838, of which Beauregard, Barry, Irvin McDowell, 
W. J. Hardee, R. S. Granger, Henry H. Sibley, 
Edward Johnson and A. J. Smith were members. He 
had served creditably in the Mexican War, receiving 
a brevet for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, 
and at the outbreak of the war was a Major and 
Quartermaster at St. Louis, where he did very much 
to frustrate Lyon's plans and was regarded by him as 
a Secessionist at heart. He continued to hold his 
position, however, as Chief Quartermaster of the 
Department of the West until Fremont appointed him 
Brigadier-General. 

Shortly after Fremont's removal he was placed 
under arrest at St. Louis and ordered before a court- 
martial, which did not convene, and he was at last 
summarily dismissed for "neglect and violation of 
duty, to the prejudice of good order and military 
discipline." He became a stock broker in New York 
City, and afterwards a land agent at Rolla, Mo. 

It will be seen by the map that the disposition of 
the troops was good, and that Fremont had the ad- 
vantage of short lines from Sedalia and Rolla to cut 
Price's line of retreat, recapture the spoils he was 



224 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

hastening to a place of safety, and destroy, or at 
least disperse, his army. 

Fremont, however, made no use of this advantage, 
and Price seems to have had no apprehension that 
he w^ould. Price remained in Lexington until Oct. 1, 
serenely contemplating the gigantic preparations 
made for his destruction, and then having gathered 
up all that he could readily get, and reading Fre- 
mont's order for a forward movement of the Army 
of the West, thought, like the prudent meadow 
lark, that probably something would be now done, 
and the time had come for moving. He began a 
deliberate retreat, crossing the Osage River at Osce- 
ola, and reaching Greenfield, 150 miles away, at the 
very comfortable pace of 15 miles a day. 

Gen. Fremont ordered the Army of the West for- 
ward, but the so-called pursuit was very much like 
hunting a fox on a dray. He was encumbered with 
immense trains, for which bridges had to be built 
over numerous streams and roads made thru the 
rough country. The trains seemed to contain a 
world of unnecessary things and an astonishing lack 
of those necessary. Apparently almost anybody who 
had anything to sell could find purchasers among the 
numerous men about Fremont's headquarters who 
had authority to buy, or assumed it. 

One astonishing item in the purchases was a great 
number of half barrels for holding water, rather an 
extraordinary provision in a country like Missouri, 
where in the month of October water is disposed to 
be in excessive quantities. 

Notwithstanding the astonishing purchase of 
mules by everybody and anybody, none of the Di- 
vision Commanders seem to have had mules enough 
to pull their wagons. 



FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS. 225 

The division started out like the horses of a balky 
team. Gen. Pope, of the Right Wing, left Jefferson 
City Oct. 11, Sigel got away from Sedalia with the 
Third Division Oct. 13, the same day Hunter left 
Tipton with the Left Wing, and Asboth followed on 
Oct. 14. Even when they started their progress was 
very slow, for the columns were halted at streams to 
build bridges and in the rough countries to wait for 
the sappers and miners to make passable roads. 

When one column was halted, all the rest had to 
do likewise, for though Price kept the safe dis- 
tance of 100 miles away, Fremont was in constant 
apprehension of battle, and held his columns in close 
supporting distance. He did not get across the 
Osage River until Oct. 25, or nine days after Price's 
leisurely crossing that important stream, on the 
banks of which it was confidently expected that he 
would give battle. 

Price, with his diminishing forces, had no such 
intention, but fell back toward Neosho, to cover as 
long as possible the Granby Mines, seven miles from 
that place, which were the most important soui'ce of 
lead for the Southern Confederacy, to which they 
supplied 200,000 pounds per month. 

Gov. Jackson took advantage of this breathing 
spell to call the Legislature together at Neosho, 
where it held a two weeks' "rump" session of the 
small minority of that body which favored Seces- 
sion. They passed an ordinance of Secession and 
elected Senators and Representatives to the Confed- 
erate Congress, adjourning when they heard that 
Fremont had at last passed the Osage. 

Then Price took up his line of retreat toward the 
southern boundary of the State to get near Gen. Ben 



226 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

McCulloch, who had posted his forces at Cross Hol- 
low, in Benton County, northwest Arkansas. Gen. 
Price took up his position at Pineville, in the extreme 
southwestern corner of Missouri, where the rough, 
hilly country offered great chances to the defense, 
and again began communication with Gen. McCul- 
loch to induce him to unite his force with his own 
and attack the Union army. 

He had correctly estimated Fremont's general- 
ship, and thought there was a possibility of massing 
his and McCulloch's forces, to attack a portion of 
Fremont's army, drive it back and defeat him in 
detail. McCulloch, in spite of his ranger reputation, 
entirely lacked Price's aggressive spirit, and thought 
that it would be much better to fall back to the Bos- 
ton Mountain, about 50 miles farther south, and 
make a stand there. He so informed Gen. Price. 

While McCulloch had no disposition to enter Mis- 
souri and defend it against the Union troops, he had 
no hesitation about treating it as part of Confederate 
territory. Desiring to embarrass and delay Fre- 
mont's advance as much as possible, he sent forward 
his Texas cavalry to burn the mills, forage and grain 
as far in the direction of Springfield as they could 
safely go, and urged Price to do the same. McCul- 
loch's Texans soon lighted up the southwest country 
with burning mills, barns and stacks. 

To this Gen. Price was bitterly opposed. The 
mills and grain were in many instances the property 
of the Secessionists, and to destroy them would be to 
inflict worse punishment on his own people than the 
Union commanders had ever done, and would embit- 
ter them against his cause. Price repeatedly repre- 
sented to McCulloch that altogether they would have 



FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS. 227 

25,000 men, and if McCulloch did not desire to go 
forward they could make a good defensive battle in- 
side the State on the hills around Pineville. To leave 
it would cause the loss of very many Missourians 
who had enlisted in the State Guard to defend Mis- 
souri, and who would feel that they had no cause to 
fight outside of the State. 

After crossing the Osage Fremont halted near 
Connersville, about 25 miles south of Warsaw, 
where he crossed the river, and then advanced with 
Sigel to Bolivar, on the Springfield road, and sent 
forward Maj. Charles Zagonyi with 150 of his fa- 
mous Body Guard and Maj. F. J. White with 180 
men of the 1st Mo. Cav., to make a reconnoissance 
in the direction of Springfield. 

Fremont's Body Guard had played a large part 
in the pomp and circumstance of his administration. 
Maj. Chas. Zagonyi was a picturesque and effer- 
vescent Hungarian, who recounted fascinating sto- 
ries of his experience as a subordinate to Gen. Bem 
during the Hungarian Revolution, Fremont had 
authorized him to raise a body guard, in imitation 
of the famous troops of Europe, and the novelty of 
the organization attracted to it a great number of 
quite fine young men, most of whom were from 
the country around Cincinnati — one company being 
from Kentucky. They were formed into three com- 
panies, mounted on fine blooded bay horses, showily 
uniformed and each armed with two navy revolvers, 
a five-barreled rifle and a saber. 

All the officers were Americans except three — one 
Hollander and two Hungarians. The members of 
the Guard, in addition to their expensive and showy 
outfit, did not conceal from the other soldiers that 



228 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

they were picked men and considered themselves su- 
perior to the ordinary run, which did not enhance 
their popularity with their comrades. 

Majs. Z agony i and White marched all that night, 
and the next day, about noon, when about eight miles 
north of Springfield, learned that there was a force 
of at least 1,500 Confederates in the town. 

One of the rebel pickets who had not been cap- 
tured hastened back to Springfield and gave the 
alarm, so that the Confederates were in readiness 
for them. Feeling that this would be so, Majs. 
Zagonyi and White determined to move around the 
town and approach it from the west on the Mt. Ver- 
non road. In this movement White became separ- 
ated from Zagonyi, who, about 4 o'clock in the af- 
ternoon, came most unexpectedly upon the Seces- 
sionists drawn up in line at the end of a long lane. 

A heavy rail fence intervened between Zagonyi 
and the head of the lane, and an opening had to be 
made through this under a heavy fire from the enemy. 
The moment a gap was made, Zagonyi shouted to his 
men to follow him, and do as he did, raising the bat- 
tle cry, "Fremont and the Union." He dashed gal- 
lantly forward, straight for the center of the rebel 
line, followed at a gallop by his command. The Con- 
federate fire did fearful execution upon the Guard as 
it was crowded in the lane, but in a few seconds the 
lane was passed and the cavalry saber began doing 
its wild work. 

The center of the enemy's lines was at once broken 
by the terrible impact of galloping horses and the 
Confederates began a panicky retreat, followed by 
the vengeful horsemen shooting and sabering them 
as they ran. The infantry ran through the town 



FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS. 229 

to the shelter of the woods, and the Confederate cav- 
alry fell back down the road, pursued by the Guard 
until it was getting nightfall, when Zagonyi recalled 
them and returned to the Court House, raised the 
Union flag from it, released the Union prisoners con- 
fined in the jail, gathered up his dead and wounded, 
and after dark decided to fall back until he met the 
advance of the army. 

He had lost 15 men killed and 26 wounded, and 
reported that he had found 23 Confederates dead 
after the charge was over. This brilliant action, 
which was then compared with the Charge of the 
Light Brigade at Balaklava, redeemed the soldiers 
of the Guards in the eyes of their comrades, and it 
became an honor to belong to that organization. 

The next morning Maj. White reached Springfield 
with a few Home Guards, where he found the Con- 
federates still dazed by the occurrences of the day 
before, and he was careful not to undeceive them as 
to his strength. He solemnly received the flag of 
truce, said that he would have to refer the matter to 
Gen. Sigel, threw out his men as pickets, permitted 
the people to bury their dead, and then prudently fell 
back to meet the advance of the army. 

Fremont took up his quarters in Springfield, and 
began ostentatious preparations for an immediate 
decisive battle, though Price was then more than 50 
miles away from him. This Fremont should have 
known, for in some mysterious manner he was 
within ready communication with him, so much so 
as to be able to conclude the following remarkable 
convention which was duly published in a joint 
proclamation : 



230 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 



To All Peaceably-Disposed Citizens of the State of Missouri, 
Greeting: 

Whereas a solemn agreement has been entered into by and 
between Maj.-Gens. Fremont and Price, respectively, com- 
manding antagonistic forces in the State of Missouri, to the 
effect that in the future arrests or forcible interference by 
armed or unarmed parties of citizens within the limits of said 
State for the mere entertainment or expression of political 
opinions shall hereafter cease; that families now broken up 
for such causes may be reunited, and that the war now pro- 
gressing shall be exclusively confined to armies in the field: 

Therefore, be it known to all whom it may concern: 

1. No arrests whatever on account of political opinions, or 
for the merely private expression of the same, shall hereafter 
be made within the limits of the State of Missouri, and 
all persons who may have been arrested and are now held to 
answer upon such charges only shall be forthwith released; 
but it is expressly declared that nothing in this proclamation 
shall be construed to bar or interfere with any of the usual 
and regular proceedings of the established courts under stat- 
utes and orders made and provided for such offenses. 

2. All peaceably disposed citizens who may have been 
driven from their homes because of their political opinions, 
or who may have left them from fear of force and violence, 
are hereby advised and permitted to return, upon the faith of 
our positive assurances that while so returning they shall re- 
ceive protection from both the armies in the field wherever it 
can be given. 

3. All bodies of armed men acting without the authority 
or recognition of the Major-Generals before named, and not 
legitimately connected with the armies in the field, are hereby 
ordered at once to disband. 

4. Any violation of eith'er of the foregoing articles shall 
subject the offender to the penalty of military law, accord- 
ing to the nature of the offense. 

In testimony whereof the aforesaid Maj.-Gen. John Charles 
Fremont, at Springfield, Mo., on this 1st day of November, 
A. D. 1861, and Maj.-Gen. Sterling Price, at Cassville, Mo., on 
this 5th day of November, A. D. 1861, have hereunto set their 
hands, and hereby mutually pledge their earnest efforts to 
the enforcement of the above articles of agreement accord- 
ing to their full tenor and effect, to the best of their ability. 

J. C. FREMONT, Major-General Commanding. 

STERLING PRICE, Major-General Commanding. 

The practical effect of this was that Price was al- 
lowed to send such of his men as he wished home for 
the Winter, with a safeguard against their being 
molested by the Union troops, but it had no effect in 
protecting Union men from being harassed by guer- 
rilla tormentors, who cared as little for conventions 
and proclamations as for the Sermon on the Mount. 



FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS. 231 

In the meanwhile Fremont's astonishing ill suc- 
cess in purely military matters, the freely expressed 
opinion of all who came in contact with him as to his 
glaring incompetence, added to the fearful stories of 
the corruption of the men immediately surrounding 
him, were making his position very insecure. Presi- 
dent Lincoln sent his intimate and life-long friend, 
David Davis, whom he was about to elevate to the 
Supreme Bench, to St. Louis with a commission to 
investigate the rank-smelling contracts and disburse- 
ments. No report was ever made public, but it was 
generally known that they found even worse than 
they feared. 

The Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, undertook 
a tour of investigation on his own account, accom- 
panied by Adj't-Gen. Lorenzo Thomas. Some of 
the things which they found are set forth in the fol- 
lowing extracts from the memorandum from Gen. 
Thomas to his superior officer: 

Gen. Curtis said of Gen. Fremont that he found no difficulty 
in having access to him, and when he presented business con- 
nected with his command, it was attended to. Gen. Fremont 
never consulted him on military matters, nor informed him 
of his plans. Gen. Curtis remarked that while he would go 
with freedom to Gen. Scott and express his opinions, he would 
not dare to do so to Gen. Fremont. He deemed Gen. Fremont 
unequal to the command of an army, and said that he was no 
more bound by law than by the winds. 

Col. Andrews, Chief Paymaster, called and presented ir- 
regularities in the Pay Department, and desir^jd instructions 
from the Secretary for his government, stating that he was 
required to make payments and transfers of money contrary 
to law and regulations. Once, upon objecting to what he 
conceived an improper payment, he was threatened with con- 
finement by a file of soldiers. He exhibited an order for the 
transfer of $100,000 to the Quartermaster's Department, 
which was irregular. Exhibited abstract of payment by one 
Paymaster (Maj. Febiger) to 42 persons, appointed by Gen. 
Fremont, viz: one Colonel, three Majors, eight Captains. 15 
First Lieutenants, 11 Second Lieutenants, one Surgeon, three 
Assistant Surgeons; total 42. Nineteen of these have ap- 
pointments as engineers, and are entitled to cavalry pay. 

Maj. Allen, Principal Quartermaster, had recently taken 
charge at St. Louis, but reported great irregularities in bis 



232 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 



Department, and requested special instructions. These he 
deemed important, as orders were communicated by a va- 
riety of persons, in a very irregular manner, requiring dis- 
bursements of money. These orders were often verbally 
given. He was sending, under Gen. Fremont's orders, large 
amounts of forage from St. Louis to inx- > 
where corn was abundant and very cheap. The distance was 
160 miles. He gave the indebtedness of the Quartermaster's 
Department in St. Louis to be $4,506,309.73. 

By direction of Gen. Meigs, advertisements were made to 
furnish grain and hay, and contracts made for specific sums 
— 28 cents per bushel for corn, 30 cents for oats, and $17.95 
per ton for hay. In face of this another party at St. Louis — 
Baird, or Baird & Palmer (Palmer being of the old firm in 
California of Palmer, Cook & Co.) — were directed to send to 
Jefferson City (where hay and corn abound) as fast as pos- 
sible 100,000 bushels of oats, with a corresponding amount of 
hay, at 33 cents per bushel for grain and $19 per ton for 
hay. 

Capt. Edward M. Davis, a member of his staff, received a 
contract by the direct order of Gen. Fremont for blankets. 
They were examined by a board of army officers consisting of 
Capt. Hendershott, 4th U. S. Art., Capt. Haines, Commissary 
of Subsistence, and Capt. Turnley, Assistant Quartermaster. 
The blankets were found to be made of cotton and were rot- 
ten and worthless. Notwithstanding this decision they were 
purchased, and given to the sick and wounded soldiers in 
hospitals. 

One week after the receipt of the President's order modi- 
fying Gen. Fremont's proclamation relative to emancipation 
of slaves. Gen. Fremont, by note to Capt. McKeever, required 
him to have 200 copies of the original proclamation and ad- 
dress to the army, of same date, printed and sent immediately 
to Ironton, for the use of Maj. Gavitt, Indiana Cavalry, for 
distribution through the country, Capt. McKeever had the 
copies printed and delivered. The order is as follows: 

"Adjutant-General will have 200 copies of proclamation of 
Commanding General, dated Aug. 30, together with the ad- 
dress to the army of same date, sent immediately to Iron- 
ton, for the use of Maj. Gavitt, Indiana Cavalry. Maj. Gavitt 
will distribute it through the country. J. C. F., 

"Commanding General. 

"Sept. 23, 1861." 

As soon as I obtained a view of the several encampments at 
Tipton, I expressed the opinion that the forces there assem- 
bled could not be moved, as scarcely any means of transpor- 
tation were visible. I saw Gen. Hunter, second in command, 
and conversed freely with him. He stated that there was 
great confusion, and that Fremont was utterly incompetent; 
that his own division was greatly scattered, and the force 
then present defective in many respects; that he required 100 
wagons, yet he was ordered to march that day, and some of 
his troops were already drawn out on the road. His cavalry 
regiment (Ellis's) had horses, arms (indifferent), but no 
equipments; had to carry their cartridges in their pockets; 
consequently, on their first day's march from Jefferson City, 
in a heavy rain, the cartridges carried about their persons 
were destroyed. This march to Tipton (35 miles) was made 
on a miry, heavy earth road parallel to the railroad, and but 



FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS. 233 



a little distance from it. The troops were directed by Gen. 
Fremont to march without provisions or knapsaclcs, and with- 
out transportation. A violent rainstorm came up, and the 
troops were exposed to it all night, were without food for 24 
hours, and when food was received the beef was found to be 
spoiled. 

4c 4: « iC 4: « 

Gen. Hunter stated that he had just received a written 
report from one of his Colonels, informing him that but 20 
out of 100 of his guns would go off. These were the guns 
procured by Gen. Fremont in Europe. I may here state that 
Gen. Sherman, at Louisville, made a similar complaint of the 
great inferiority of these European arms. He had given the 
men orders to file down the nipples. In conversation with 
Col. Swords, Assistant Quartersmaster-General, at Louisville, 
just from California, he stated that Mr. Selover, who was in 
Europe with Gen. Fremont, wrote to some friend in San 
Francisco that his share of the profit of the purchase of 
these arms was $30,000. 

Gen. Hunter expressed to the Secretary of War his decided 
opinion that Gen. Fremont was incompetent and unfit for his 
extensive and important command. This opinion he gave re- 
luctantly, owing to his position as second in command. 

President Lincoln sent the following characteristic 
letter to Gen. S. R. Curtis, who, being in command at 
St. Louis, was directly accessible, and a man in whose 
discretion the President felt he might trust : 

Washington, Oct. 24, 1861. 
Brig.-Gen. S. R. Curtis. 

Dear Sir: On receipt of this with the accompanying inclo- 
sures, you will take safe, certain and suitable measures to 
have the inclosure addressed to Maj.-Gen. Fremont delivered 
to him with all reasonable dispatch, subject to these condi- 
tions only, that if, when Gen. Fremont shall be reached by 
the messenger — ^yourself or anyone sent by you — he shall 
then have, in personal command, fought and won a battle, 
or shall then be actually in battle, or shall then be in the im- 
mediate presence of the enemy in expectation of a battle, it 
is not to be delivered, but held for further orders. After, and 
not until after, the delivery to Gen. Fremont, let the inclosed 
addressed to Gen. Hunter be delivered to him. 

Your obedient servant, A. LINCOLN. 

The following decisive order was one of the in- 
closures : 

Headquarters of the Army, Washington, Oct. 24, 1861. 
General Orders No. 18. 

Maj.-Gen. Fremont, of the U. S. Army, the present Com- 
mander of the Western Department of the same, will, on the 
receipt of this order, call Maj.-Gen. Hunter, of the U. S. Vol- 
unteers, to relieve him temporarily in that command, when 
he (Maj.-Gen. Fremont) will report to General Headquarters, 
by letter, for further orders. WINFIELD SCOTT. 



234 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

A special messenger arrived at Springfield, Nov. 
2, with the order, which created consternation at 
Fremont's headquarters. It is more than probable 
that Fremont felt his elevation to be such that he 
could try conclusions with the Administration, and 
refuse to obey the order. 

There was considerable talk at that time about 
military headquarters as to a dictator, and this was 
so rife about McClellan's that his journal constantly 
abounds in allusions which indicate that he was put- 
ting the crown away from him with increasing gen- 
tleness each time. There was much of the same at- 
mosphere about the headquarters of the Army of the 
West, and it is claimed that Fremont at first decided 
not to obey the order, but on Sigel's urgent repre- 
sentations finally concluded to do so, and issued the 
following farewell order to his troops : 



Headquarters Western Department, 

Springfield, Mo., Nov. 2, 1861. 
Soldiers of the Mississippi Army: 

Agreeably to orders this day received I take leave of you. 
Altho our army has been of sudden growth, we have grown 
up together, and I have become familiar with the brave and 
generous spirit which you bring to the defense of your coun- 
try, and which makes me anticipate for you a brilliant ca- 
reer. Continue as you have begun, and give to my successor 
the same cordial and enthusiastic support with which you 
have encouraged me. Eniulate the splendid example which 
you have already before you, and let me remain, as I am, 
proud of the noble army which I had thus far labored to 
bring together. 

Soldiers, I regret to leave you. Most sincerely I thank you 
for the regard and confidence you have invariably shown me. 
I deeply regret that I shall not have the honor to lead you to 
the victory which you are just about to win, but I shall claim 
to share with you in the joy of every triumph, and trust al- 
ways to be fraternally remembered by my companions in 
arms. J- C. FREMONT, 

Major-General, U. S. Army. 

He left at once for St. Louis, with his Body Guard 
for an escort. Though these men had been enlisted 



FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS. 235 

for three years, they were ordered by Gen. McClel- 
lan to be mustered out, and Maj. Zagonyi was offered 
the Colonelcy of a new regiment. 

The time and manner of the removal enabled Gen. 
Fremont's ardent partisans to complain loudly that 
he was relieved on the eve of a battle in which he 
would have accomplished great things, and was thus 
denied an opportunity to achieve lasting fame and 
render essential service to the country. The evi- 
dence, however, is conclusive that at that time Price 
was at Pineville, fully 50 miles away, and in the 
midst of a very rough country, instead of being in 
Fremont's immediate front, as Fremont certainly 
supposed. 

Whether he would have accepted battle after Fre- 
mont had reached him at Pineville, is a matter of 
conjecture. The pressure in favor of Fremont con- 
tinued strong enough, however, to bring about the 
offer of a new command to him the following year, 
but it was grotesquely shrunken from the proud pro- 
portions of that from which he had been relieved. It 
was styled the Mountain Department, and embraced 
a large portion of West Virginia. Even in this re- 
stricted area he again failed to give satisfaction, 

June 8, 1862, he fought an indecisive battle 
against Stonewall Jackson at Cross Keys, took um- 
brage at being placed under the command of Gen. 
John Pope, whom he had once commanded, asked to 
be relieved from command, and joined the ranks of 
the bitter critics of President Lincoln's Administra- 
tion, though still retaining his commission and pay 
as a Major-General. 

He still thought his was a name to conjure with, 
and May 31, 1864, accepted the nomination for Pres- 



2S6 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

ident from a convention of dissatisfied Republicans 
assembled at Cleveland, resigning his commission at 
last, June 4, 1864. 

The chill reception with which the country re- 
ceived his nomination at last disillusionized even 
him, and in September he withdrew from the field, 
to clear the way for Lincoln's re-election. He then 
became connected with the promotion of a Pacific 
railway over the southern of the routes which he had 
surveyed, lost his money and property in the course 
of time, appealed to Congress for relief, and in 1890 
was by special act put on the retired list of the Army 
with the rank of Major-General. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE SAD RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD. 

THE partisans of Gen. Fremont bitterly blamed 
Gen. David Hunter for having intrigued to 
succeed Fremont, and they rejoiced that his 
tenure of that office proved to be so short-lived. This 
was both fallacious and unjust. 

Gen. David Hunter, while not of the highest type 
of military ability, was yet far above mediocrity. He 
was one of the best examples of the Old Regular 
Army officer — thoroughly devoted to his profession, 
a master of all its details, incorruptible, inflexible, 
and intolerant to all whose character and conduct 
lowered the standard of what Hunter thought an 
American officer should be. 

He was born in the District of Columbia, graduat- 
ed from West Point in 1822, 25th in a class of 40 
members, and had an extensive experience in Indian 
fighting, commanding for several years a troop of 
dragoons. He resigned in 1836, but re-entered the 
Army in 1842 as a Paymaster and served as Chief 
Paymaster of Gen. Wool's Division in the Mexican 
War. 

At the outbreak of the war of the rebellion he had 
been made Colonel of the 6th U. S. Cav. — a new regi- 
ment — and commanded a division at Bull Run, where 
he showed great gallantry and was wounded. He 
had been sent out to Fremont as his second in com- 
mand and adviser, in the hope that he would 
control in some measure the commander's erratic 
course and be instrumental in promoting better 
methods in his administration. 

(237) 



238 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

He was true to his duties in communicating to his 
superiors just what he found in the Department of 
the West and properly representing Fremont's in- 
competence. It was not intended that he should 
have permanent command of the army, and probably 
no man was less desirous that he should be than he 
himself, for he had a modest opinion of his own abil- 
ities and never hesitated to subordinate himself 
when he thought another man would do better in the 
place. 

The command was given him merely as a stop-gap 
until another commander could be determined upon. 

In the same envelope which contained Lincoln's 
letter to Gen. Curtis inclosing the order for the 
supersedure of Gen. Fremont, was another reading 
as follows : 

Washington, Oct. 24, 1861. 
To the Commander of the Department of the West. 

Sir: The command of the Department of the West having 
devolved upon you, I propose to offer you a tew suggestions. 
Knowing how hazardous it is to bind down a distant com- 
mander in the field to specific lines and operations, as so 
much always depends on a knowledge of localities and pass- 
ing events, it is intended, therefore, to leave a considerable 
margin for the exercise of your judgment and discretion. 

The main rebel army (Price's) west of the Mississippi is 
believed to have passed Dade County in full retreat upon 
northwestern Arkansas, leaving Missouri almost freed from 
the enemy, excepting in the southeast of the State. Assum- 
ing this basis of fact, it seems desirable, as you are not likely 
to overtake Price, and are in danger of making too long a 
line from your own base of supplies and reinforcements, that 
you should give up the pursuit, halt your main army, divide 
it into two corps of observation, one occupying Sedalia and 
the other Rolla, the present termini of railroad; then recruit 
the condition of both corps by reestablishing and improving 
their discipline and instruction, perfecting their clothing and 
equipments, and providing less uncomfortable quarters. Of 
course, both railroads must be guarded and kept open, judi- 
ciously employing just so much force as is necessary for this. 
From these two points, Sedalia and Rolla, and especially in 
judicious cooperation with Lane on the Kansas border, it 
would be so easy to concentrate and repel an army of the 
enemy returning on Missouri from the southwest, that it is 
not probable any such attempt to return will be made before 
or during the approaching cold weather. Before Spring the 



THE SAD RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD. 239 

people of Missouri will probably be in no favorable mood to 
renew for next year the troubles which have so much af- 
flicted and impoverished them during this. If you adopt this 
line of policy, and if, as I anticipate, you will see no enemy 
in great force approaching, you will have a surplus of force, 
which you can withdraw from these points and direct to 
others, as may be needed, the railroads furnishing ready 
means of reinforcing their main points, if occasion requires. 
Doubtless local uprisings will for a time continue to occur, 
but these can be met by detachments and local forces of our 
own, and will ere long tire out of themselves. 

While, as stated in the beginning of the letter, a large dis- 
cretion must be and is left with yourself, I feel sure that an 
Indefinite pursuit of Price or an attempt by this long and cir- 
cuitous route to reach Memphis will be exhaustive beyond en- 
durance, and will end in the loss of the whole force en- 
gaged. Your obedient servant, 

A. LINCOLN. 

This letter, undoubtedly dictated by McClellan, 
who was then the dominant military influence at 
Washington, is yet strikingly characteristic of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, and abounds in that profound common 
sense which made him easily the first General of the 
War. 

The army was already 125 miles away from its 
base of suppliess on the railroad, with a terrible 
rough intervening country. Consequently, the 
problem of supplying it was of momentous serious- 
ness and the expense appalling. 

Though in the midst of a region of wonderful fer- 
tility, with its crops gathered in barns, no one seems 
to have though of utilizing these. They left them 
for Price to gather in, while they hauled their sup- 
plies from Rolla. Our officers as yet were only in the 
primer class in war. 

The letter also shows the firm hold of the prevail- 
ing opinion that Secession was only a temporary 
madness, from which the people would recover when 
the Winter gave them time to reflect and reason. 
Probably this would have been the case had the Gov- 



240 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

emment put forth its power with crushing effective- 
ness. But the first year of the war was to end with 
the Secessionists successful almost everywhere, and 
big scores to their credit in Missouri. The fresh 
disaster at Ball's Bluff on the Potomac unnerved 
many loyal people. 

Possibly President Lincoln did not anticipate that 
his suggestions would be carried out so literally. 
His best information was that Price's army had vir- 
tually gone to pieces, and that by taking post at 
Sedalia and Rolla the central and southwestern parts 
of the State could be effectually controlled by parties 
sent out from there. He could not have conceived 
that Price had a strong, compact, aggressive army 
well in hand, and that the new commander of the 
Department of the West would march away from it 
without striking a blow or making a manuver to 
reduce its capacity for harmfulness. 

Certainly some shreds of Lyon's mantle must have 
fallen on that proud array of new-made Generals, 
and they would insist on striking a quick, sharp blow, 
as a return for Lexington, for the honor of the Union 
army, and to curb Price's rising conviction that he 
was an irresistible conqueror. 

But the next day after receiving his assignment to 
command. Gen. Hunter made a reconnoissance in 
force to the battlefield of Wilson's Creek, where Fre- 
mont had persisted in believing that Price was wait- 
ing to give him battle. He found no enemy on the 
scene of the terrible battle of two months before. 
Instead, all his information was to the effect that 
Price was among the rugged fastnesses about Pine- 
ville, 50 miles away, with McCulloch still farther off 
in the Boston Mountains. 



THE SAD RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD. 241 

Hunter therefore ordered his columns to counter- 
march and proceeded to carry out the President's in- 
structions promptly and exactly. 

This backward movement, without a blow at Price, 
abandoned the whole of the Union loving country of 
southwestern Missouri to the Secessionists, and was 
a measureless calamity. 

The Union people, taking heart from the advance 
of Fremont with his great army, had returned to 
their homes and attempted to re-establish themselves 
upon their farms and in their business. All these 
hopes were suddenly dashed to the ground by the 
retirement of the army, and they had to flee again 
in haste before the immediate advance of Price to 
occupy the abandoned region. 

It was not his army which was so terrible, but the 
horde of guerrilla bands, which rushed out like veno- 
mous serpents after a warm rain, intent upon rapine, 
outrage and murder. It was the "Poor White Trash" 
let loose under such leaders as Quantrill, the Young- 
ers, Jameses, Haywards, Freemans, and a thousand 
others of bandit infamy. 

Aside from these calamities, the retreat, added 
to Price's victory at Lexington, was a most stifling 
moral depression of the Union sentiment in Mis- 
souri. 

While the condition of things in the greater cen- 
tral and southwestern parts of Missouri had been 
grievously unsatisfactory for many weeks, and seem- 
ed to be growing steadily more so, it was otherwise 
in the southeastern section. 

The so-called Ozark Mountains, which are really a 
series of rough, picturesque highlands, separating 



242 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

the watersheds of the Missouri and the Arkansas 
Rivers, begin on the Mississippi at the mouth of the 
Meramec River, 20 miles below St. Louis, and extend 
along the Mississippi, rising frequently into cliffs 
of limestone 350 feet high, to Cape Girardeau, 44 
miles above Cairo, 111. 

This range, less than 100 miles wide, one of the 
richest in the world in minerals, sinks away on the 
north and west to the valleys of the Osage and the 
Missouri and the prairies which stretch across Kan- 
sas and the Indian Territory to the Rocky Moun- 
tains. To the southeast it falls into the lowlands and 
swamps along the Mississippi, making there a sep- 
arate and distinct section — about the size of Con- 
necticut — and of entirely different character from 
the rest of the State. Over 3,000 square miles of 
this — or nearly three times the size of Rhode Island 
— are swamps thickly wooded with towering 
cypresses, and covered with jungles impenetrable to 
man. The principal town in the region was New 
Madrid, a fever-smitten little village on the banks of 
the Mississippi, 44 miles below Cairo. It had once 
much promise, but the terrible earthquakes of 1811- 
12 had seamed the surrounding country with great 
crevices and gulches, adding hopelessly to its for- 
bidding character, and giving a mortal blow to New 
Madrid's expectations. 

The region was drained — as far as it was drained 
— by the St. Francis River, a considerable stream, 
navigable nearly to the Missouri line, and emptying 
into the Mississippi nine miles above Helena, Ark. 

Besides the Mississippi River there were then two 
routes of access from St. Louis to this region. One 
was by the Iron Mountain Railroad, which ran 



THE SAD RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD. 243 

through the Ozarks to Pilot Knob, 84 miles from the 
city, and the other by common road through Fred- 
ericktown, 105 miles from St. Louis. 

Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston — regarded by Jeffer- 
son Davis as a great military genius, and appointed 
to command the entire Confederate army in the West 
— had some idea of moving an army up through the 
swamps to these roads, flanking the Union position 
at Cairo and taking St. Louis. The St. Francis 
River would aid in supplying the army. His imme- 
diate subordinate, Maj.-Gen. Polk, was still more in 
favor of the plan, and it went in this proportion 
down through Gen. Gideon Pillow, with his "Army 
of Liberation," to the most enthusiastic advocate of 
the scheme, our poetical acquaintance. Gen. M. Jeff 
Thompson, 's 3e "Swamp Fox of Missouri." The idea 
was to move in concert with Price coming up from 
the southeast. 

Maj.-Gen. Leonidas Polk, C. S. A., who had been 
placed in command of the Mississippi River, and 
subsequently had the States of Arkansas and Mis- 
souri added to his Department, had gathered about 
him in the neighborhood of Memphis some 25,000 or 
30,000 Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and other 
troops, with which, scorning Kentucky's claim of 
neutrality, he advanced to Columbus, Ky., the ter- 
minus of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, and 20 miles 
from Cairo, 111. Upon the high bluff there he pro- 
ceeded to construct one of those "Gibraltars" so 
numerous in the early history of the war. 

With the force at his command and the opposition 
he was likely to meet from the Union commanders 
in southeast Missouri, a march on St. Louis by the 
roads indicated was a promising venture. Besides 



244 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

the forces immediately around him, he had control 
of McCulloch's, Pearce's and Hardee's columns in 
Arkansas, and potential control of Price's and 
Thompson's Missouri forces, making altogether an 
aggregate approaching 70,000 men. 

But he hesitated, while Pillow fretted and fumed, 
and wrote that while he honored his superior officer 
as a prelate and admired him as a patriot, he had 
small opinion of his military judgment. 

M. Jeff Thompson, who had no mean opinion of 
his own abilities, wrote to Jefferson Davis that what 
the Southern Confederacy needed in that quarter 
was "a first-class leader," and he cast a unanimous 
vote for himself for that position. 

In the meantime an event occurred as to the sig- 
nificance of which Polk, Pillow and Thompson were 
as unappreciative as the country at large. 

In August, U. S. Grant, lately commissioned a 
Brigadier-General, was sent down to Cape Girardeau 
to look after matters in southeast Missouri, includ- 
ing Cairo, 111., and he took with him his former regi- 
ment, the 21st 111., to the command of which Col. 
John W. S. Alexander had succeeded. A peculiarity 
of Gen. Grant, which President Lincoln speedily 
noticed, was that wherever he was "things kept mov- 
ing." There were no grand reviews, no sounding 
proclamations, no sensational announcements of 
plans, but somehow everybody about him was found 
to be speedily employed in an effective way against 
the enemy. But little clamor ever came from Grant 
for reinforcements or additional strength. If he 
was given a thousand men he at once set them to 
work doing all that 1,000 men were capable of. Given 
2,000 men he would do twice as much, and so on. If 



THE SAD RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD. 245 

supplies were not furnished him, he gathered them 
from the surrounding country, giving vouchers care- 
fully based on the prevailing market rates. If no 
wagons or teams were at hand, he impressed them 
and gave vouchers. 

As unassertive and modest as Grant seemed to be, 
he had a remarkable faculty for bringing in every- 
body near him and securing from them prompt and 
energetic obedience to his orders. 

Among Gen. Grant's subordinates was our old ac- 
quaintance, Capt. J. B. Plummer, who had done such 
good work at Wilson's Creek and who was now in 
command of the 11th Mo. There was also Col. W. 
P. Carlin, a Captain in the Regular Army, whom the 
Governor of Illinois had wisely made Colonel of the 
38th 111. Carlin, a graduate of West Point in the 
class of 1850, was a somewhat austere, highstrung 
man, wrapped up in his profession, an excellent sol- 
dier, and feverishly anxious to do his duty and jus- 
tify his promotion to the important position he held. 

Like all Regulars he was jealously sensitive about 
his rank, and one of his first performances was in- 
sistence that he outranked Col. C. E. Hovey, of the 
33d 111., and should therefore have command of the 
post. Hovey, who had been Principal of the Normal 
Institute before becoming a Colonel, felt that his 
position had been quite as high as that of a Captain 
in the Regular Army, and his men, who entered 
warmly into the dispute, could hardly understand 
how the Colonel of the 38th 111. could outrank the 
Colonel of the 33d, and though they at last gave way, 
there was some bitterness of feeling. 

Though Gen. Grant had only about 14,000 men all 
told, he kept Johnston, Polk and Thompson, with 



246 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

their 30,000, so well employed guarding points that 
he threatened, or might take without threatening, 
that their superiority was neutralized and they were 
kept on the defensive. 

Burning with desire to do something, M. Jeff 
Thompson, who, in spite of his gasconade, was really 
a brave, enterprising man, and a good deal of a sol- 
dier, started out from Columbus early in October 
with some 2,000 men, expecting to be joined by other 
forces on the way, capture Ironton and Frederick- 
town, open up the road for Pillow's columns to St. 
Lous, and to co-operate with Gen. Price. 

He went down the river in boats to New Madrid 
and there began a march across the country toward 
Bloomfield, which was to become the base of so many 
of his subsequent operations. Leaving his infantry 
under the command of Col. Aden Lowe, of the 3d 
Mo. State Guards, a prominent young attorney and 
politician, to follow more slowly, Thompson pushed 
on with 500 mounted men, whom he calls "dra- 
goons," made a wide circuit, and struck the railroad 
north of Ironton at Big River Bridge, only about 40 
miles from St. Louis. He had made astonishing pro- 
gress so far, and jubilantly reported to Gen. Albert 
Sidney Johnston, who had come to Columbus to 
watch the movement, that his men were so anxious 
to fight that he reached his objective point two days 
ahead of the appointed time. 

At the Big River Bridge he struck a small com- 
pany of a somewhat noted regiment, the 33d 111. (the 
Normal Regiment) , largely made up of students and 
teachers in the Normal Institute of Illinois, who, 
despite the disparity in numbers, gave him a sharp 
little fight, in which he lost two killed and quite a 



O'HE SAD RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD. 247 

number wounded. He reported having captured 45 
prisoners, with a quantity of supplies, and succeeded 
in burning the bridge across the river. While en- 
gaged in dstributing the supplies, another company 
of the 33d 111., hearing the noise, came up to the as- 
sistance of their comrades, and Thompson had an- 
other fight on his hands, in which he admits he lost 
four men killed and quite a number wounded, but 
insists that he "killed another lot of the enemy and 
took 10 prisoners." He said he "had the enemy ter- 
ribly frightened," and that if Albert Sidney John- 
ston had the rest of his men in striking distance that 
he could take Ironton, with its 12,000,000 rations 
stored for the Winter, in an hour. 

Johnston transmitted Thompson's report to Rich- 
mond with a complimentary indorsement. Thompson 
also reported having received several hundred re- 
cruits and captured about 17,000 pounds of lead. 
These were destined to be the last of his rejoicings 
for some time. 

Thompson sent word to all the commanders of 
Confederate forces in the neighborhood to join in his 
attack on Ironton, promising them victory and un- 
limited spoils. 

Gen. Grant ordered Col. Carlin to move forward 
with his force from Pilot Knob and attack Thomp- 
son's main body, which was then in the neighborhood 
of Fredericktown. He also ordered Col. J. B. Plum- 
mer to march from Cape Girardeau, strike at 
Thompson's line of retreat, and endeavor to capture 
his whole force. 

Thompson had cunningly magnified the number 
of his troops, and Plummer and Carlin were both 
impressed with the idea that he had somewhere in 



248 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

the neighborhood of 5,000 or 6,000 men and was 
likely to be joined by Gen. Hardee's column from 
Pocahontas, Ark., with many more. 

Grant, with that accurate knowledge of his enemy 
which was one of his conspicuous traits and never 
failed him at any time during the war, informed 
them that Thompson had only between 2,000 and 
3,000 men. As usual in Grant's operations, the col- 
umns moved on time and arrived when expected. 

Col. Carlin moved Oct. 20 from Pilot Knob with 
about 3,000 men made up of the 21st 111., Col. Alex- 
ander; 33d 111., Col. C. E. Hovey; 38th 111., Maj. 
Gilman ; 8th Wis., Col. Murphy ; part of the 1st Ind. 
Cav., Col. Conrad Baker, and some of the guns of the 
1st Mo. Art., under the charge of Maj. Schofield. 

Col. Plummer's column, about 1,500 strong, con- 
sisted of the 17th 111., Col Ross; 20th 111., Col. Marsh; 
11th Mo., Lieut.-Col. Panabaker; Lieut. White's sec- 
tion of Taylor's Illinois Battery, and two companies 
of cavalry commanded by Capts. Stewart and Lan- 
gen. 

Col. Plummer moved to Dallas, on Johnston's line 
of retreat, and there sent through a messenger to 
Col. Carlin, stating where he was and what his in- 
tentions were, so that the two forces could co- 
operate. The messenger was captured by some of 
the Missourians, and therefore Thompson came into 
possession of the plans of his enemies. He moved 
back with his train until he saw it safely on its way 
to Greenville, and then returned with his command 
toward Fredericktown to accommodate his op- 
ponents with a fight if they desired it and to gain 
time for his train to get back to Bloomfield and New 
Madrid. 



THE SAD RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD. 249 

Not finding Thompson at Dallas, Col. Plummer 
moved up to Fredericktown, arriving there at noon, 
Monday, Oct. 21, and found that Col. Carlin had ar- 
rived with his forces about 8 o'clock in the morning. 
There was immediately one of those squabbles over 
rank which were so frequent on both sides during 
the early part of the war and not absent from its his- 
tory at any time. 

In spite of being a younger man than Col. Plum- 
mer, a younger Captain in the Regular Army, and in 
spite of Plummer's experience in the Mexican War 
and at Wilson's Creek, Carlin insisted upon the com- 
mand of the whole, upon the grounds that he had 
been commissioned a Colonel Aug. 15, and by the 
Governor of Illinois; while Plummer's commission 
was from Fremont. Carlin insisted that he had a 
plan by which Thompson's whole force could be cap- 
tured, but was at length induced to yield the com- 
mand to Plummer, who went ahead with the com- 
bined force to attack Thompson, leaving Carlin, who 
was exhausted and ill, in town with a portion of his 
command. 

Possibly, what helped induce Carlin to yield was 
the knowledge of an agreement between Col. Plum- 
mer and Col. Ross, of the 17th 111., who outranked 
both of them, that if Carlin persisted in his claim, 
Ross should assert his seniority and take command 
of the whole. Carlin retained the 8th Wis. and two 
24-pound howitzers in Fredericktown to hold the 
place, while Plummer took the rest of the force and 
started out in search of Thompson. 

He did not have to go very far. 

A half mile from town shots were heard, and the 
cavalry came back with the information that the 



250 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

enemy was just ahead. The leading infantry regi- 
ment, the 17th 111., went into line to the left and 
moved forward into a cornfield, where the enemy's 
skirmishers were immediately encountered. 

Lieut. White came up with his section of artillery 
and opened fire upon a hill about 600 yards distant 
where it was likely that Thompson had his artillery 
masked. Thompson's guns could not stand the pun- 
ishment quietly and opened up only to be speedily 
suppressed by other guns which Maj. Schofield hur- 
ried up to join two which had been firing. 

Col. Lowe, commanding the Missouri State 
Guards, first engaged, was soon shot through the 
head and his regiment began falling back before the 
steady advance of the. 17th 111., to vv^hich was soon 
added the fire of the 33d 111. and a part of the 11th 
Mo. 

At first the Missourians fell back steadily, but 
after the rough handling of the artillery their retreat 
became a rout and Col. Baker dashed forward with 
the 1st Ind. Cav. in pursuit. A half mile in the rear 
Thompson succeeded in rallying his men and also 
brought one piece of artillery into action, receiving 
the cavalry with a fierce volley, by which Maj. 
Gavitt, who had been active and prominent in the 
operations in that section, and Capt. Highman were 
killed. 

Notwithstanding this, the cavalry rallied, charged, 
and took the gun, which they had, however, to soon 
give up under a charge led by Thompson himself. 

The 17th 111. had already secured one gun, and 
now as the infantry came up Thompson's men broke 
and retreated rapidly in every direction. Hearing 
th«=* nois<3 of the fighting, Col. Carlin arose from a 



THE SAD RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD. 251 

sick-bed, galloped to the battlefield, and took com- 
mand of a part of the troops. The pursuit was con- 
tinued by the infantry for 10 miles, and by the cav- 
alry 12 miles farther, when it was decided that 
Thompson's men had scattered and gained a refuge 
in the swamps, and that further pursuit would be 
useless. 

Plummer recalled his forces to Fredericktown. He 
claims that he took 80 prisoners, of whom 38 were 
wounded, and buried 158 of Thompson's dead, with 
other bodies being found from time to time in the 
woods. His own loss he reports as six killed and 16 
wounded. 

Thompson reported that he had lost 20 killed, 27 
wounded, and 15 prisoners, but that he "had mowed 
down the enemy as with a scythe;" that "they ac- 
knowledge a loss of 400 killed and wounded," etc., 
etc. He admitted he had lost one cannon by its be- 
ing disabled so that it could not be brought from the 
field. He said that his "dragoons" had stampeded 
in a shameful way, but that his infantry had behaved 
very well. Later, he reported from New Madrid 
that his command was "very much demoralized." 

Gen. Polk seems to have been much depressed by 
the news of Thompson's defeat, because he ordered 
an abandonment of the post at New Madrid and the 
bringing over of the men and guns to his "Gibraltar" 
at Columbus. 

Gen. Grant, though probably disappointed at the 
failure of his plans to capture Thompson's force, was 
careful to write complimentary letters to all the 
commanders, recognizing their good services in the 
expedition. 



252 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

The fight at Fredericktown quieted things pretty 
effectually in southeastern Missouri, and ended for 
a long while the project of capturing St. Louis by 
the New Madrid route. 

Gen. Grant was preparing some startling things 
to occupy the attention of Johnston, Polk and Pillow 
in quite another quarter. 



CHAPTER X\. 

GEN. H. W. HALLECK IN COMMAND. 

HENRY WAGER HALLECK, who succeeded 
Gen. Fremont in command of the Department 
of Missouri, Nov. 9, 1861, had been pointed 
to as a brilliantly shining example of what West 
Point could produce. He was born in 1819 near 
Utica, N. Y., of a very good family, and had gradu- 
ated July 1, 1839, from West Point, third in a class 
of which Isaac I. Stevens, afterward to conclude a 
brilliant career by dying a Major-General on the 
field of battle, was the head. Other conspicuous 
members of the class were Maj.-Gens. James B. 
Ricketts, E. 0. C. Ord, H. J. Hunt, and E. R. S. Can- 
by, of the Union army, and A. R. Lawton, a Confed- 
erate Brigadier-General. Halleck was commissioned 
in the Corps of Engineers, and during the Mexican 
War received a couple of the brevets so easily won 
in that conflict. 

With his attainments and cast of mind, he made 
an admirable staff officer for Commodore Shubrick 
and Gens. Mason and Riley in their administration 
of California while the territory was being reduced 
to an American possession. He became a Captain 
in his Corps in 1852, but the opportunities in Cali- 
fornia were so tempting, that he resigned to enter 
the practice of the law and embark in various busi- 
ness enterprises of railroad building and quicksilver 
mining. He was unusually successful in all these, 
becoming Director-General of the New Almaden 
Quicksilver Mining Company, President of a rail- 

(253) 



254 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

road, and a member of a leading law firm. He kept 
up his military connection by accepting the commis- 
sion of Major-General commanding the California 
Militia. 

He was a constant student and a ready writer, and 
during this time published a number of military and 
scientific books, some of which were original and 
others translations. 

Intellectually, professionally and socially he stood 
very high, and the bestowal of a Major-General's 
commission upon him, dating from Aug. 19, 1861, met 
with universal approval, though it gave him seniori- 
ty in that coveted rank to many distinguished sol- 
diers. At that time Halleck was in his 46th year and 
the very prime of his powers. He was tall, spare, 
and commanding in figure, with a clean-shaven, au- 
thoritative, intellectual face in which men read great 
things. He had large, searching eyes, which seemed 
to penetrate the one with whom he was talking. As 
far as education and observation could go, Halleck 
was as complete a soldier as could be produced. 
Whatever could be done by calculation and careful 
operation, he could do on a high plane. He only 
lacked military instinct and soldierly intuition. Of 
that moral force which frequently overleaps mere 
physical limitation he seems to have had little, nor 
could he understand it in others. 

There was in him none of the fiery zeal of Lyon, 
or the relentless pugnacity of Grant; apparently 
these qualities were so absent in him that he did not 
know how to deal with them in others. He never put 
himself at the head of his troops to lead them in 
battle. 

He could build up, block by block, with patient cal- 



GEN. H. W. HALLECK IN COMMAND. 255 

culation, without comprehension that somewhere 
might be a volcanic energy suddenly unloosed which 
would scatter his blocks like straws. 

If he had political convictions, they were so unob- 
trusive as to be rarely mentioned in connection with 
him. Probably his views were the same as generally 
prevailed among the Regular Army officers of that 
day which were represented by the attitude of the 
Douglas Democrats and "Old Line Whigs." 

He believed, above all things, in law and system, 
and wanted all the affairs of this world to go ahead 
in strict accordance with them. The soldier epithet 
of "Old Brains" was bestowed upon him, and he 
seemed to relish the appellation. 

In the long and specific letter of instructions ac- 
companying his assignment to command. Gen. Mc- 
Clellan directed him to carefully scrutinize all com- 
missions and appointments, and revoke those not 
proceeding from the President or Secretary of War ; 
to stop all pay and allowances to them, and if the 
appointees gave any trouble, send them out of the 
Department, and if they returned, place them in con- 
finement. He was to examine into the legality of all 
organizations of troops serving in the Department, 
and deal with those unauthorized in a similar sum- 
mary way. All contracts were to be rigidly probed, 
and payment suspended on those of which there was 
the slightest doubt. All officers who had in any way 
violated their duty to the Government were to be ar- 
rested and brought to prompt trial. 

Halleck began at once to justify the high expecta- 
tions entertained of him. Order and system followed 
the erratic administration of his predecessor. Sol- 
diers were subjected to vigorous discipline, but they 



256 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

were given the supplies to which they were entitled, 
and they were made to feel that they were being em- 
ployed to some purpose. 

The futile and aggravating marches made in pur- 
suit of the elusive guerrillas and bushwhackers, who 
were never caught, were replaced by well-directed 
movements striking at the heart of the trouble. 

Acting under Gen. Price's orders sometimes, but 
frequently under their own impulses to commit out- 
rages, inflict blows, and create excitement, a large 
part of the State was covered by bands of guerrillas 
who appeared as citizens, were well armed, rode good 
horses, and were annoyingly successful in sweeping 
down on the railroad stations, water tanks, bridges, 
and settlements of Union people, burning, destroying, 
and creating havoc generally. 

Gen. Halleck proclaimed martial law, and issued 
an order that any man disguised as a peaceful citizen, 
if caught in the act of burning bridges, etc., should 
be immediately shot. The troops proceeded to exe- 
cute this order with good hearts. A large number 
of the offenders were shot down in the neighborhoods 
where they had committed their offenses ; others were 
taken before a military commission and condemned 
to the same fate. 

Gens. Pope, Prentiss, Schofield and Henderson 
were given sufficient forces and ordered to move di- 
rectly upon the more important bodies of Secession- 
ists who formed a nucleus and support for these 
depredators. They all did so with good effect. 

Gen. Prentiss moved against a force about 3,000 
strong operating in Howard, Boone and Calloway 
Counties, and succeeded in striking them very 



GEN. H. W. HALLECK IN COMMAND. 257 

heavily at Mount Zion Church, where they were dis- 
persed with a loss of 25 killed, 150 wounded, 30 pris- 
oners, 90 horses, and 105 stands of arms. 

Gen. Pope operating from Sedalia achieved even 
better success, capturing Col. Robinson's command of 
1,300 men and about 60 officers, 1,000 horses and 
mules, and 73 wagons loaded with powder, lead and 
supplies and 1,000 stands of arms. 

Gen. Prentiss very effectually cleaned out the State 
north of the Missouri River, and in conjunction with 
Gen. Pope's operations south of it, made it so threat- 
ening for Gen. Price, who had advanced to the Osage 
River to support the Secessionists there, that he 
broke up his camp and rather hurriedly retreated to 
Springfield. 

The year 1861 therefore ended with the Union men 
again in possession of nearly four-fifths of the State, 
with their hands full of prisoners and supplies cap- 
tured from the enemy. 

The Secessionists of St. Louis had been encouraged 
by the untoward course of events in the East. After 
Bull Run had come the shocking disaster of Ball's 
Bluff, and with Gen. Price only a short distance away 
on the Osage threatening Jefferson City and north 
Missouri, they felt their star in the ascendant, and 
became unbearably insolent. Gen. Halleck repressed 
them with a vigorous hand, yet without causing the 
wild clamor of denunciation which characterized 
Gen. Butler's Administration of New Orleans. 

It will be remembered that at that time it was 
thought quite the thing for young Secessionist 
women to show their "spirit" and their devotion to 
the South by all manner of open insult to the Yankee 
soldiers. Spitting at them, hurling epithets of abuse. 



258 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

and contemptuously twitching aside their skirts were 
regarded as quite the correct thing in the good socie- 
ty of which these young ladies were the ornaments. 
This had become so intolerable in New Orleans, that 
Gen. Butler felt constrained to issue his famous order 
directing that women so offending should be treated 
as "women of the town plying their vocation." This 
was made the pretext of "firing the Southern heart" 
to an unwarranted degree, and Jeff Davis issued a 
proclamation of outlawry- against Ben Butler, with 
a reward for his head. 

Sanguine Secessionists hoped that this "flagrant 
outrage" by "Beast Butler" would be sufficient cause 
for the recognition of the Southern Confederacy by 
France and England. 

Gen. Halleck met the same difficulty as Butler very 
shrewdly. The Chief of Police of St. Louis had some 
measure of control over the disreputable women of 
the city, and made law for them. Under Gen. Hal- 
leck's order he instructed these women to vie with 
and exceed their respectable sisters in their manifes- 
tations of hostility to the Union cause and of devo- 
tion to the South. Where the fair young ladies of 
the Southern aristocracy were wearing Secession 
rosettes as big as a rose, the women of the demi- 
monde sported them as big as a dahlia or sunflower. 
Where the young belle gave a little graceful twitch 
to her skirts to prevent any possible contamination 
by touching a passing Yankee, the other class flirted 
theirs' aside in the most immodest way. It took but 
a few days of this to make the exuberant young 
ladies of uncontrollable rebel proclivities discard 
their Secession rosettes altogether, and subside into 
dignified, self-respecting persons, who took no more 



GEN. H. W. HALLECK IN COMMAND. 259 

notice of a passing Union soldier than they did of a 
lamp-post or tree-box. 

Another of Gen. Halleck's orders did not result so 
happily. It will be remembered that Gen. Fremont 
declared free the slaves of men in arms against the 
Government, and that their freedom would be as- 
sured them upon reaching the Union lines. 

In the inflamed condition of public sentiment in 
the Border States on the negro question this was 
very impolitic, and the President promptly overruled 
the order. 

Gen. Halleck went still further in the issuance of 
the following order, which created as intense feeling 
in the North as Gen. Fremont's "Abolition order" 
had excited in the Border States : 

It has been represented that important information re- 
specting the number and condition of our forces is conveyed 
to the enemy by means of fugitive slaves who are admitted 
within our lines. In order to remedy this evil, it is directed 
that no such persons be hereafter permitted to enter the 
lines of any camp, or of any forces on the march, and that 
any now within such lines be immediately excluded there- 
from. 

It was particularly distasteful to the Radicals in 
Missouri who had been represented by Gen. Fremont. 
During his administration the Union party in the 
State had divided into two wings — the Radicals and 
the Conservatives, who soon came to hate each other 
almost if not quite as badly as they did the Secession- 
ists. The Radicals, or, as their enemies called them, 
"the Charcoals," were largely made up, as before 
stated, of the young, aggressive, idealistic Germans 
who had poured into Missouri after the suppression 
of the Rebellion of 1848, and who looked upon slav- 
ery as they did on "priest-craft" and "despotism" — 
all monstrous relics of barbarism. They had abso- 



260 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

lutely no patience with the "peculiar institution," 
and could not understand how any rational, right- 
thinking man could tolerate it or hesitate about 
sweeping it off the earth at the first opportunity. 
Those of them who had gone into the army had only 
done so to fight for freedom, and without freedom 
the object of their crusade was lost. 

The German newspapers attacked Halleck with 
the greatest bitterness, meetings were held to de- 
nounce him and secure his removal, and strong ef- 
forts were made to obtain Sigel's promotion to a 
Major-General and his assignment to the command. 

Gen. Halleck, in a letter to F. P. Blair, explained 
and justified this order, as follows : 

Order No. 3 was, in my mind, clearly a military necessity. 
Unauthorized persons, black or white, free or slave, must be 
kept out of our camps, unless we are willing to publish to the 
enemy everything we do or intend to do. It was a military, 
and not a political order. 

I am ready to carry out any lawful instructions in regard 
to fugitive slaves which my superiors may give me, and to 
enforce any law which Congress may pass. But I cannot 
make law, and will not violate it. You know my private 
opinion on the policy of confiscating the slave property of the 
rebels in arms. If Congress shall pass it, you may be certain 
that I shall enforce it 

Among other well-taken measures was the passage 
of a law by Congress authorizing the enrollment of 
citizens of Missouri into regiments to be armed, 
equipped and paid by the United States, but officered 
by the Governor of Missouri, and employed only in 
the defense of the State. This had many advantages 
besides giving the services to the Government of 
about 13,000 very good soldiers. It brought into the 
ranks many wavering young men who did not want 
to fight against the Union, nor did they want to fight 
against the South. To enlist for the "defense of the 
State" satisfied all their scruples. 



GEN. H. W. HALLECK IN COMMAND. 261 

The time had come when every young man in the 
State had to be lined up somewhere. He could not 
remain neutral ; if he was not for the Union he would 
inevitably be brought into the Secession ranks. 

The law authorized the necessary staff and com- 
manding officers for this force, and prescribed that 
it should be under the command of a Brigadier-Gen- 
eral of the United States selected by the Governor of 
Missouri. 

Our old acquaintance, John M. Schofield, Gen. 
Lyon's Chief of Staff at the battle of Wilson's Creek, 
who had since done good work in command of a 
regiment of Missouri artillery, was commissioned a 
Brigadier-General to date from Nov. 21, 1861, and 
put in command of the Missouri Enrolled Militia, be- 
ginning thus a career of endless trouble, but of quite 
extended usefulness. 

It will be remembered that Brig.-Gen. U. S. Grant, 
recently promoted from the Colonelcy of the 21st 111., 
had been relieved from his command at Jefferson 
City, and sent to that of a new district consisting of 
southeast Missouri and southern Illinois. He had 
made his headquarters temporarily at Cape Girar- 
deau, to attend to M. Jeff Thompson, who was deter- 
mined to lead the way for Gens. Leonidas Polk and 
Gideon Pillow into St. Louis by the Mississippi River 
route. Grant, as we have seen, organized his move- 
ments so well that Thompson was driven back from 
Fredericktown and Ironton with some loss, and re- 
turned to his old stamping-ground at New Madrid, 
below Columbus, Ky., where Polk had established 
his headquarters and the fighting center of the Con- 
federacy in the West. Polk was reputed to have at 
that time some 30,000 men under his command, and 



262 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Grant, following his usual practice of getting into 
proximity to his enemy, transferred his headquarters 
to Cairo, where, also in accordance with his invaria- 
ble habit, he begun to furnish active employment for 
those under him in ways unpleasant for his adver- 
sary. An enemy in the territory assigned to Gen. 
Grant was never allowed much opportunity to loll in 
careless indolence. This idiosyncrasy of Gen. Grant 
made him rather peculiar among the Union Generals 
at that stage of the war. 

Two days after Grant arrived at Cairo he learned 
that Gen. Polk was moving to take Paducah, at the 
mouth of the Tennessee River, 45 miles above Cairo. 
This was a most important point, as a lodgment 
there would have stopped navigation on the Ohio, 
and absolutely controlled that on the Cumberland 
and Tennessee. Grant at once decided that he would 
anticipate him and telegraphed for permission to 
St. Louis, but his telegram and another one still 
more urgent received no attention, and he proceeded 
to act on his own volition, loading his men on the 
steamers and starting for Paducah in the night, ar- 
riving there in the morning, thereby anticipating 
the rebel advance some six or eight hours. This 
was characteristic of Grant's other operations around 
Cairo, and it was not long until he had that point not 
only free from apprehension as to what Polk might 
do against it with his mighty army, but he had Polk 
becoming anxious as to what Grant might do against 
him at Columbus, which he had proclaimed as the 
"Gibraltar of the West." 

Everywhere in his district Grant had introduced 
the best discipline into the force of 20,000 men which 



GEN. H. W. HALLECK IN COMMAND. 263 

he had collected. He had looked out carefully for 
their wants, and had them well supplied, and he was 
gaining their confidence as well as his own by well 
directed movements which always led to considerable 
results. 

Fremont, who had at last started out in his grand 
movement against Price, was fearful that Price's 
army might be strongly reinforced by Polk from 
Columbus, and it was made Grant's duty to prevent 
this. 

Grant with his habitual boldness had been desirous 
of moving directly against Columbus, but the reputed 
strength of the works and the force there made the 
suggestion carry shivers to the minds of his 
superiors, where the memories of Bull Run and Ball's 
Bluff were so painfully recent. But if Grant was not 
allowed to do one thing, he would always do another. 
He heard of a force under M. J. Thompson, number- 
ing about 3,000, on the St. Francois River, about 50 
miles to the southwest of Cairo, and promptly started 
Col. Richard J. Oglesby with about 3,000 men to 
beat up Jeff Thompson and destroy him. 

Later he ordered Col. W. H. L. Wallace to take 
the remainder of the 11th 111., and some other troops 
to move after Oglesby, to give him help should he 
need it. 

Soon after, believing that Jeff Thompson had got- 
ten out of Col. Oglesby's reach, he sent another order 
to Oglesby to move directly upon New Madrid and 
take the place. This was a bold performance, for 
the capture of New Madrid would have placed him 
on the Mississippi below Columbus and cut off Polk's 
principal line of supplies. 

Urgent dispatches continued to come from Fre- 



264 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

mont to prevent any reinforcement of Price from 
Columbus, and Grant started in to impress Gen. Polk 
with the idea that he would have quite enough to 
attend to at home. He sent orders to Gen. C. F. 
Smith, commanding at Paducah, to send a column 
out to threaten Columbus from that side, and to Col. 
Marsh to advance from Mayfield, Ky., and Grant 
himself, gathering up about 3,000 men from the 
troops he had around Cairo, embarking them on 
steamers, and under the convoy of two gunboats 
(the Lexington and Tyler) , steamed down the river 
directly for Columbus, 20 miles away. 

Nov. 6 the flotilla dropped down the river to 
within six miles and in full view of Columbus, and 
landed a few men on the Kentucky side. This was 
to still further confuse the mind of Gen. Polk, and 
make him believe that he must expect an attack on 
the land side in co-operation with the forces advanc- 
ing from Paducah and from Mayfield directly in 
front of Cairo. 

Gen. Grant says that when he started out he had 
no intention of making a fight, and of course did not 
contemplate any such thing as a direct attack with 
the force he had upon the immensely superior num- 
bers at Columbus, but he saw his men were eager to 
do something, and that they would be greatly discon- 
tented if they returned without a fight. Therefore, 
on learning that the enemy was crossing troops to 
the little hamlet of Belmont, opposite Columbus, pre- 
sumably with the intention of cutting off and crush- 
ing Oglesby, he resolved to strike a blow, and deter- 
mined to break up the small camp at Belmont, which 
would give the enemy something else to think about. 

About an hour after daybreak he began landing 



GEN. H. W. HALLECK IN COMMAND. 265 

his men on the west side of the Mississippi River, 
while the gunboats moved down a little further and 
waked up the enemy by throwing shells into the 
works at Columbus. Grant handled his men with 
the skill he always displayed on the field of battle, 
pushing forward the main body through the corn 
fields and woods, but leaving a regiment in a secure 
position in a dry slough as a resource for an emer- 
gency. They with the gunboats were to protect the 
transports. 

Gen. Polk probably saw all this, but interpreted it 
as a mere feint to get him to send troops across the 
river and thus strip his fortifications so as to make 
easier the work of the columns advancing from Pa- 
ducah and Mayfield. He therefore held his men with 
him and did not interfere with Grant's movements. 

Grant pushed on through the cornfields and woods 
for a mile or more, and then rearranged his lines and 
pushed forward a heavy line of skirmishers. By this 
time the enemy in camp at Belmont had learned of 
the movement, and started out to meet it. The two 
lines of skirmishers soon came in contact, and there 
was a spiteful, bickering fire opened between them. 
Both sides were expert woodsmen and riflemen, and 
thoroly at home at this kind of work. The Union 
line pressed the Confederates slowly back for four 
hours, receiving and inflicting considerable losses. 
Grant's horse was shot under him, but he got an- 
other, and kept his place in the advance, directing 
and encouraging the men, whom he says acted like 
veterans and behaved as well as any troops in the 
world could have done. 

He pushed the enemy so closely that when the lat- 
ter reached the abatis they broke into confusion and 



266 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

rushed over the river bank for shelter, yielding pos- 
session of their camp to the victorious Unionists. 

This triumph completely intoxicated the victors. 
They broke ranks, threw down their guns, began 
rummaging through the camps for trophies, running 
up and down and cheering wildly. Their officers 
were no better than they. Many of them had been 
political "spellbinders" in civil life and very natu- 
rally proceeded to "improve the occasion" by getting 
on stumps and delivering enthusiastic Union 
speeches and addresses of congratulation over the 
gallantry of their men and the wonderful victory 
achieved. In vain did Gen. Grant try to recall them 
to a sense of soldierly duty and discipline. He alone 
appeared to comprehend the object of the expedition, 
and what was necessary to be next done. He could 
not rally enough men to go down the river bank and 
capture the garrison which was sheltered there. A 
number of the men who were attracted by the cap- 
tured cannon began firing them with great jubilation 
down the river at steamboats which they saw there, 
and Grant tried to have them, since they would fire 
guns, turn them upon the steamers which were com- 
ing across from Columbus loaded with troops. Polk 
had at last waked up to what was being done across 
the river, and began a fire upon Belmont from his 
siege guns, while he hurried troops aboard steamers 
to recover the lost position. 

The shells began to startle the exultant soldiers, 
and Grant took advantage of this to employ them in 
setting fire to the tents and other camp equipage. 
Presently the sky of victory was overcast by the sud- 
den announcement that the rebels were in line of bat- 
tle between them and the transports, and that they 



GEN. H. W. HALLECK IN COMMAND. 267 

were cut off and surrounded. The exultation of vic- 
tory was followed by almost a panic, but Grant 
steadied them with the quiet assurance ''We have cut 
our way in here, and we can cut it out again." This 
was taken up by the officers as they reformed their 
men for the battle. 

Again the skirmish line was pushed forward in 
search of the enemy, but he offered only a moderate 
resistance, and the troops made their way back to 
the transports with little difficulty, though the excite- 
ment was tremendous. 

The commanders of the gunboats had kept alert, 
and came promptly forward to engage the guns on 
the Columbus bluffs and later to discourage the pur- 
suing rebels with liberal volleys of grape and canis- 
ter, which, as the bend of the river gave them an 
enfilade on the river line, were delivered with great 
effect and considerable slaughter. 

The troops were gotten again on board the trans- 
ports without any particular trouble, though about 
25 wounded were left in the hands of the enemy. The 
Union troops had brought off about 175 prisoners 
and two guns, besides spiking four other cannon. 

While the wounded were being gathered up and 
brought aboard. Gen. Grant rode out some distance 
to reconnoiter, and almost rode into a body of the 
enemy. He turned and made his way back to the 
transports, which were just starting; the Captain 
recognized him, and held his boat for a moment while 
Gen. Grant's horse slipped down the steep bank and 
then trotted on board over the single gangway. The 
expedition returned to Cairo immediately. 

Gen. Grant officially reported his losses as 485 in 
killed, wounded and missing. 



268 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Gen. Polk officially reported his losses as killed, 
105; wounded, 419; missing, 117; total, 641. He 
estimated the Union losses at 1,500; "fourteen- 
fifteenths of that number must have been killed, 
wounded or drowned." He also said that he had a 
stand of colors, something over 1,000 stand of arms, 
with knapsacks, ammunition, and other military- 
stores. 

Medical Director J. H. Brinton gives the following 
list of losses by regiments : 

Command. KiUed. Wounded 

27th 111. Vol 11 47 

30th 111. Vol 9 27 

31st 111. Vol 10 70 

22d 111. Vol 23 74 

7th Iowa Vol 26 93 

Cavalry and Artillery 1 11 

Total 80 322 

While Gen. Grant and the officers and men under 
him regarded the affair as a great victory, and de- 
servedly plumed themselves upon their achievements 
that day, there was a decidedly different opinion 
taken in the North, and the matter has been the sub- 
ject of more or less sharp criticism ever since. It was 
pronounced by the McClellan-Halleck school of mili- 
tary men as a useless waste of men in gaining no ob- 
ject, and probably the most charitable of Gen. Grant's 
critics could find no better excuse for him than that 
he was like the man in the Bible who had bought two 
yoke of oxen and wanted to go and try them. All 
this did not disturb the equanimity of Gen. Grant 
and his men in the least. He knew he had accom- 
plished what he had set out to do, to give Gen. Polk 



GEN. H. W. HALLECK IN COMMAND. 269 

something else to occupy his mind than capturing 
Oglesby or reinforcing Thompson and Price. 

Col. Oglesby made his way unmolested back to 
Cairo. Polk was probably beginning to think that 
he would have quite enough to do to stay in Colum- 
bus, and his dreams as to St. Louis were dissipated. 

Gen. Grant's men knew that they had met their 
enemies on equal terms in the open field, and had 
driven them, whether they were in their front or 
rear, and so they were content. 

The Confederates of course proclaimed a great vic- 
tory, and made the most of it. Albert Sidney John- 
ston enthusiastically congratulated Polk, Jefferson 
Davis did the same, and the Confederate Congress 
passed a resolution of thanks to Maj.-Gen. Polk and 
Brig.-Gens. Pillow and Cheatham and the officers 
and soldiers under their commands. 

The battle was the occasion of still further in- 
creasing the bitterness between Polk and his insubor- 
dinate subordinate, Gideon J. Pillow, who resigned 
his commission, and sent to the Confederate War 
Department a long and bitter complaint against Gen. 
Polk, a large part of which was taken up with 
charges against his superior for non-support when 
he. Pillow, was engaged in a terrible struggle on the 
west side of the river with a force "three times my 
own." Pillow asserted that he had repeatedly driven 
back the Unionists at the point of the bayonet, after 
his ammunition had been exhausted, and no more 
was furnished him by Gen. Polk. He said that Polk 
had thus needlessly sacrificed many brave men, and 
that a like, if not greater, calamity was possible if he 
were to continue in command. "His retention is the 



270 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

source of great peril to the country." Pillow said: 
"As a zealous patriot, I admire him; as an eminent 
minister of the Gospel, I respect him ; but as a Com- 
manding General I cannot agree with him." 

Southeastern Missouri had, therefore, a season of 
rest for some time. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS. 

MAJ.-GEN. DAVID HUNTER felt that fortune 
was not smiling on him according to his de- 
serts. He had graduated from West Point 
in 1822, and had been in the Army 39 years, or 
longer than any but few of the officers then in 
active employment. He was a thorough soldier, de- 
voted to his profession, highly capable, inflexibly 
upright, strongly loyal, an old-time friend of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, and enjoyed his full confidence. He 
had done a very painful piece of necessary work for 
the Administration in investigating the conditions in 
Gen. John C. Fremont's command, faithfully report- 
ing them, and in relieving that officer, thereby incur- 
ring the enmity of all his partisans. Then he had 
handed the command over to Maj.-Gen. H. W. Hal- 
leck, who had graduated 17 years later than he, and 
who had been seven years out of the Army. 

Gen. Hunter had been assigned to Kansas, which 
was created a Department for him, but it had few 
troops, and was remote from the scene of important 
operations. He was particularly hurt that Brig.- 
Gen. Don Carlos Buell, 19 years his junior, should 
be assigned to the command of a splendid army of 
100,000 men in Kentucky; and Brig.-Gen. Thos. W. 
Sherman, 14 years his junior, should be selected to 
lead an important expedition to the coast of South 
Carolina and Georgia. 

Like the faithful soldier he was, however, he made 
little plaint of his own grievances, but addressed 

(271) 



272 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

himself earnestly to the work to which he was as- 
signed. He soon had other troubles enough to make 
him forget his own. His hardest work was to keep 
the Kansans off the Missourians. In the strained 
and wavering conditions of public opinion, every 
effort had to be made to prevent any pretext or in- 
centive to take the young men of Missouri into the 
ranks of Price's army. Gen. Halleck estimated that 
indignation at the border raids of Lane, Jennison 
and Montgomery had given Price fully 20,000 men. 
The years of strife along the borders had arrayed 
the people in both States against one another. Every 
Kansan considered every Missourian the enemy of 
himself and the State, and the feeling was recipro- 
cated by the Missourians. 

For years Kansas had been inflicted with raids by 
the "Poor White Trash," "Border Ruffians," and 
"Bald Knobbers," who had, beside committing other 
outrages, carried off into Missouri horses, cattle, 
furniture, farm implements, and other portable 
property. 

The Kansans held all Missourians responsible for 
these crimes by the worser element, and the war 
seemed a chance to get even. When opportunity 
offered, Kansas parties invaded Missouri, bringing 
back with them everything which they could load on 
wagons or drive along the road. 

The great mass of the Missourians still held aloof 
from both sides, remaining as neutral as they would 
be allowed. Douglas Democrats, Bell-and-Everett 
Old-Line Whigs, two-thirds of the entire population, 
were yet halting between their attachment for the 
Union and their political and social affiliations. It 
was all-important that they should be kept loyal, or 



HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS. 273 

at least out of the Confederate camps, hence the 
stringency of Halleck's orders against any spolia- 
tions or depredations by Union troops, and hence his 
orders that the negroes should be kept out of the 
camps, and their ownership settled by the civil 
courts. Every offense by Union soldiers was made 
the most of by Price's recruiting agents to bring 
into their ranks the young men for the "defense of 
the State." 

At the head of the vengeful Kansas element was 
the meteoric James H. Lane, who had for years rid- 
den the whirlwind in the agitation following the pas- 
sage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and the rush of 
settlers into those Territories. Volumes have been 
written about "Jim Lane," but the last definitive 
word as to his character is yet to be uttered. Arch 
demagogue he certainly was, but demagogues have 
their great uses in periods of storm and stress. We 
usually term "demagogues" those men active against 
us, while those who are rousing the people on our 
own side are "patriotic leaders." No man had more 
enemies nor more enthusiastic friends than "Jim 
Lane." 

As with all real leaders of men, the source of his 
power was a mystery. Tall, thin, bent, with red 
hair, a rugged countenance and rasping voice, he had 
little oratorical attractiveness, and what he said 
never read convincingly in print. No man, however, 
ever excelled him before an audience, and he swayed 
men as the winds do the sea. 

Lane was born in Lawrenceburg, Ind., in 1814, 
and was therefore 47 years of age. His father was 
Amos Lane, a lawyer of great ability, a member of 
Congress, and conspicuous in Indiana. James H, 



274 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Lane went into politics at an early age, and entered 
the Mexican War as Colonel of the 3d Ind., distin- 
guishing himself at Buena Vista, where he was 
wounded. Upon the expiration of the term of ser- 
vice of his regiment he raised the 5th Ind., and be- 
came its Colonel. This gave him quite a prestige in 
politics, and he was elected Lieutenant-Governor, 
and Representative in Congress. The atmosphere of 
Indiana was, however, too quiet for his turbulent 
spirit. He broke with his party, joined in the rush 
to Kansas, and speedily became the leader of the 
out-and-out Free State men. On the strength of his 
Mexican War reputation these elected him Major- 
General of their troops, in the troubles they were 
having with the Pro-Slavery men and the United 
State troops sent to assist in making the Territory a 
Slave State. When the Free State men gained con- 
trol of the Territory, he was made Major-General 
of the Territorial troops. His principal lieutenants 
were James Montgomery and Dr. Charles R. Jenni- 
son, brave, daring men, colleagues of "Old Osawa- 
tomie Brown," entertaining the same opinions as he 
with regard to slavery, and with even fewer scruples 
than he as to other forms of property. 

When the United States troops were assisting the 
Pro-Slavery men, Montgomery and Jennison went 
into active rebellion at the head of some hundreds of 
bold, fighting men — " Jayhawkers" — ^who carried ter- 
ror into the ranks of their adversaries. They in- 
sisted that they were acting according to the light of 
their own consciences and the laws of God. So terri- 
ble did they become that, Nov. 26, 1860, Geo. M. 
Beebe, Acting Governor of the Territory, reported to 
President Buchanan that Montgomery and Jenni- 



HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS. 275 

son, at the head of between 300 and 500 "well-dis- 
ciplined and desperate Jayhawkers," equipped with 
"arms of the latest and most deadly character," had 
hung two citizens of Linn County, and frightened 
500 citizens of that County into flight from the Ter- 
ritory. One of their number having been captured, 
was about to be brought to trial before the United 
States District Court at Fort Scott, and what they 
alleged was a packed jury. They had proceeded to 
so frighten the court that the Judge and Marshals 
incontinently fled to Missouri, leaving a notice on 
the door that there would be no session of the court. 
Therefore Gov. Beebe humanely recommended to the 
President that Montgomery and Jennison be imme- 
diately killed, as there would be no peace in the Ter- 
ritory until they were. 

In spite of Lane's constant prominence, there was 
always a faction in Kansas as bitterly his enemies as 
his friends were enthusiastic for him, and it was 
ever a question which of the two were the stronger. 
It demanded his utmost activity and cunning to keep 
himself on top. Upon the admission of the State, 
Lane succeeded in havmg himself elected Senator, 
but the legality of the proceeding was questioned 
and this called for more activity to keep himself at 
the front. 

When the Union army retreated after the battle of 
Wilson's Creek, Aug. 10, there went back with it the 
1st and 2d Kan. — all the organized troops the State 
had in the field. This left the border exposed to the 
vengeance of Price's on-sweeping hordes, who made 
loud threats of what they proposed to do. Lane 
sounded the trumpet. Wilson's Creek with Bull Run 
had awakened the people to the stern realities of the 



276 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

contest, and there speedily gathered into camp the 
men who formed the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Kan., 
Montgomery becoming Colonel of the 3d Kan. ; Jen- 
nison of the 7th ( Jennison's Jayhawkers) . Lane took 
command of the troops assembled at Fort Scott, mov- 
ed out aggressively on Price's flank, gave Kains, who 
was in command there, a sharp skirmish at Dry 
Wood, and his manuvers were so menacing that 
Price called Rains back when within five miles of the 
Kansas line, relinquishing his cherished idea of 
"scourging the Abolitionist nest," and pushed on to 
Lexington. Lane then made a dash into Missouri in 
Price's rear, fought a lively skirmish at Papinsville, 
and followed up the retreating Confederates, captur- 
ing Osceola, as has been previously stated. 

After Gen. Hunter assumed command Lane reap- 
peared with a commission as Brigadier-General of 
Volunteers, of which he had beguiled President Lin- 
coln, and began playing a game which gave intense 
annoyance to the bluff, straightforward old soldier. 
To Hunter he represented that he was there merely 
as a Senator and a member of the Senate Military 
Committee, which latter he was not. To the Presi- 
dent and War Department he represented that he 
and Hunter were in brotherly sympathy and confi- 
dence, and planning a movement of mighty impor- 
tance. The "sympathy" and "confidence" part were 
believed so completely, that the War Department did 
not take the trouble to communicate with Hunter in 
regard to the details of the proposed movement. 

To his friends and to the press he talked magnilo- 
quently about a grand "Southern expedition" to be 
made up of 8,000 or 10,000 Kansas troops, 4,000 In- 
dians, seven regiments of cavalry, three batteries of 



HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS. 211 

artillery, and four regiments of infantry from Min- 
nesota and Wisconsin, which he would command. It 
would move from Kansas down into Texas, and there 
meet an expedition coming up from the Gulf of Mex- 
ico. The War Department seems to have been im- 
pressed with the feasibility of this, and began order- 
ing troops, officers and supplies to Fort Leavenworth 
to report to "Brig.-Gen. James H. Lane." 

Lane's enemies as well as his friends in Kansas 
heartily approved of this, as it would take him away 
from Kansas, and the Kansas Legislature united in a 
request to have him appointed a Major-General, as 
that would vacate his seat in the Senate. 

General-in-Chief McClellan "invited" Gen. Hun- 
ter's attention to the proposed expedition, and sug- 
gested that he prepare for it and report what might 
be necessary. Gen. Hunter replied that he had had 
no official information as to the expedition, and gen- 
tly complained that the War Department seemed en- 
tirely unmindful of the Commander of the Depart- 
ment, and had consistently ignored him. As to the 
expedition, he regarded it as impracticable. It was 
440 miles from Leavenworth to the nearest point in 
Texas, and the road was over a wild, barren country, 
which would require an immense train of supplies 
for the troops. He had in the Department only about 
3,000 men, entirely too few to successfully defend 
Fort Leavenworth and its valuable supplies against 
a raid such as Price and McCulloch were continually 
threatening. He said he knew no such person as 
"Brig.-Gen. J. H. Lane," to whom so many came with 
orders to report. He also said that Lane himself 
now saw that he had raised expectations which he 
could not fulfill, and that he was seeking to pick a 



278 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

quarrel with the Department Commander to give 
him an excuse for dropping the whole business, and 
was making himself very annoying in a thousand 
ways. 

Secretary Stanton was profoundly distrustful of 
Lane, and said that he would leave the Cabinet rather 
than put him in independent command. Finally the 
matter came to President Lincoln, who wrote the fol- 
lowing characteristic letter: 

Executive Mansion, Washington, Feb. 10. 
Maj.-Gen. Hunter and Brig.-Gen. Lane, Leavenworth, Kan.: 

My wish has been and is to avail the Government of the 
services of both Gen. Hunter and Gen. Lane, and, so far as 
possible, to personally oblige both. Gen. Hunter is the senior 
officer, and must command when they serve together; tho 
in so far as he can, consistently with the "public service and 
his own honor, oblige Gen. Lane, he will also oblige me. If 
they cannot come to an amicable understanding, Gen. Lane 
must report to Gen. Hunter for duty, according to the rules, 
or decline the service. 

A. LINCOLN. 

Lane, who then thought his seat in the Senate 
safe, decided that he would rather serve his country 
in the forum than in the field, and his commission 
was cancelled. Five years later, dismayed to find 
he had lost his hold on the people of Kansas by his 
support of Andrew Johnson, he ended his strange, 
eventful history with a pistol-shot from his own 
hand. 

Gen. Hunter having reported that the division of 
Kansas from Missouri was unwise, the Department 
was merged into Gen. Halleck's command, and Gen. 
Hunter assigned to duty in South Carolina. 

Gen. Halleck's laboriously elaborate system re- 
ceived a little shock so ludicrous as to be almost in- 
credible were it not solemnly told in an official com- 
munication by himself to Gen. Sterling Price : 



HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS. 279 

St. Louis, Jan. 27, 1862. 
Maj.-Gen. Sterling Price, Commanding, etc., Springfield, Mo. 
General: A man calling himself L. V. Nichols came to my 
headquarters a day or two since, with a duplicate of your 
letter of the 12th instant. On being questioned, he admitted 
that he belonged to your service; that he had come in citi- 
zen's dress from Springfield, avoiding some of our military 
posts and passing through others in disguise, and without 
reporting himself to the Commander. He said that he had 
done this by your direction. On being asked for his flag of 
truce, he pulled from his pocket a dirty pocket-handkerchief, 
with a short stick tied to one corner. , 

Gen. Halleck then proceeded to read Gen. Price a 
lecture on the etiquet of flags of truce. 

A feature of peculiar pathos was the war storms' 
reaching and rending of the haven of refuge which 
the Government had provided for its wards in the 
Indian Territory. More than a century of bitter 
struggling between the Creeks, Seminoles, Cherokees, 
Choctaws, and Chickasaws, and the Carolinians, 
Georgians, Floridians, Alabamians, and Mississip- 
pians, marked by murderous massacres and bloody 
retaliations, had culminated in the Indians being 
removed in a body from their tribal domains, and 
resettled hundreds of miles west of the Mississippi, 
where it was confidently hoped they would be out of 
the way of the advancing wave of settlement and out 
of the reach of the land-hungry whites. Their mills, 
churches, and school houses were reerected there, 
and the devoted missionaries, the Congregationalists, 
Methodists, Baptists, Moravians and Jesuits re- 
sumed with increased zeal the work of converting 
them to Christianity and civilization, which had been 
so far prosecuted with gratifying success. 

In their new home they had prospered wonder- 
fully. Their numbers increased until they were esti- 
mated from 100,000 to 120,000. Many of them lived 
in comfortable houses, wore white men's clothes, and 



280 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

tilled fields on which were raised in the aggregate 
great quantities of wheat, corn, cotton and potatoes. 
They had herds of horses, cattle, sheep and swine 
large beyond any precedent among the whites. It 
was common for an Indian to number his horses and 
cattle by the thousands, while the poorest of them 
owned scores which foraged in the plenty of limitless 
rich prairies and bottom land. Churches, school 
houses and mills abounded, and they had even a 
printing press, from which they issued a paper and 
many religious and educational works in an alphabet 
invented by a full-blood Cherokee. Each tribe con- 
stituted an individual Nation under a written Con- 
stitution, with a full set of elective officers. Slavery 
had been introduced by the half-breeds, and the cen- 
sus of 1860 shows the following number of slaves and 
slave-owners in the five Nations: 

Owners. Slaves. 

Choctaws 385 2,297 

Cherokees 384 2,504 

Creeks 267 1,651 

Chickasaws 118 917 

Seminoles — . 

One Choctaw owned 227 negroes. 

Into the Territory the Government also gathered 
other tribes and remnants of tribes, Quapaws, Kio- 
was, Senecas, Comanches, etc., mostly in the "blan- 
ket" stage of savagery. 

The dominant sentiment in the civilized tribes was 
strongly averse to the war and in. favor of peace. 
The memories and traditions as to the meaning of 
war were too fresh and grievous. The object lessons 
as to the advantage of peace were everywhere strik- 
ing and overwhelming. They hoped to maintain a 
complete neutrality in the struggle, and pleaded to 
be allowed to do so. June 17, 1861, John Ross, Prin- 




HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS. 281 

cipal Chief of the Cherokees, wrote a long official let- 
ter to Gen. Ben. McCulloch, in which he said that 
his people had done nothing to bring about the war, 
were friends to both sides, and only desired to live 
in peace. 

As in the rest of the 
South, the Confederates 
were not listening to any 
talk of neutrality, and they 
proceeded as energetically to 
stifle it as they had the 
Union and peace advocates 
in the several Southern 
States. All the Indian 
Agents and officials were 

. . Gen. Albert Pike. 

ardent Secessionists, and at 

the head of them was Superintendent Albert Pike, 
originally a Massachusetts Yankee, and the son of a 
poor shoemaker. He had gone South as one of the 
numerous "Yankee schoolmasters" who invaded that 
section in search of a livelihood, had become a States 
Rights Democrat, and, as usual with proselytes, was 
the most zealous of believers. He was a lawyer of 
some ability, a successful politician, an active worker 
in Masonry, and made much pretense as a poet. 
Nothing that he ever wrote survives today. 

Each of the Indian Agents began enlisting men 
into the Confederate service and using them to im- 
pose Secession ideas upon their fellow-tribesmen who 
were either indifferent or actually hostile. 

The missionaries, being mostly from the North, 
were strongly for the Union, and their influence had 
to be encountered and broken down. 



282 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

The Indian Agents were commissioned Colonels in 
the Confederate service, and were expected to raise 
regiments, with the Chiefs as subordinate officers. 
The leader among the Agents was Douglas H. 
Cooper, Agent for the Choctaws, a man of courage, 
decision and enterprise, who raised a regiment 
mainly of the half-breeds of the Choctaws and 
Chickasaws. 

The Cherokee regiment was almost wholly half- 
breeds, with Stand Waitie, a half-breed, courageous, 
implacable, merciless, as its Colonel. Albert Pike 
was rewarded for his great service in bringing the 
Indians into line with a commission of Brigadier- 
General, C. S. A., and placed in command of the 
whole force. 

Principal Chief John Ross temporarily bowed to 
superior force and gave his adhesion to the Southern 
Confederacy. A large portion of his people would 
not do this. They, with a similar element in the 
other Nations, gathered around the venerable Chief 
Hopoeithleyohola, nearly 100 years old, and whose 
span of life began before the Revolutionary War. 
He had been a dreaded young war leader against 
Gen. Jackson in the sanguinary scenes at Fort 
Mimms, Tallapoosa, and Red Sticks in 1813-14. 
When he was a boy his people were allied with the 
Spaniards in Florida to resist the British encroach- 
ments upon their tribal empire in Georgia. When he 
was a War Chief, the British at Pensacola and Mo- 
bile had put muskets and ammunition into his hands 
for his men to resist the North Carolinians, Geor- 
gians, Tennesseeans and Kentuckians. In every de- 
cade he had fought and treated with the grandfath- 
ers and fathers of the same men who were trying to 



HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS. 283 

coerce him. Every battle and every treaty had ended 
in a further spoliation of the "hunting grounds" of 
his people. He was now to end his career as he be- 
gan, and consistently pursued it, in stern resistance 
to his hereditary enemies. He calculated that he 
could put into the field about 1,500 reliable, well-arm- 
ed warriors, who would be more than a match for 
the Indians who had entered into the Confederate 
service. If the white Confederates came to their as- 
sistance, he could make an orderly retreat mto Kan- 
sas, where he hoped to receive help from Union 
troops, if they should not have advanced before then. 

Col. Douglas H. Cooper was sent against him, and 
at first tried diplomacy, but the wily old Hopoeithle- 
yohola had seen the results of too many conferences, 
and refused to be drawn into one. Cooper then as- 
sembled a force of 1,400 men, consisting of some 
companies of white Texas cavalry and the Chicka- 
saw, Creek, and Seminole regiments, under their 
War Chiefs, D. N. Mcintosh and John Jumper, and 
moved out to attack Hopoeithleyohola, who beat them 
back with considerable loss. 

The advance of Gen. Fremont called for the con- 
centration of every available man to oppose him, so 
Hopoeithleyohola was given a few weeks' respite. As 
soon, however, as the Union army retreated to Rolla 
and Sedalia, Col. Cooper resumed his operations 
against Hopoeithleyohola, who at Chusto-Talasah, 
Dec. 9, inflicted such a severe defeat upon him that 
Cooper retreated in a crippled condition to Fort Gib- 
son. There Col. James Mcintosh, commanding the 
Confederate forces at Van Buren, Ark., went to his 
assistance with some 1,600 mounted Texans and Ar- 
kansans, and the combined force closed in upon the 



284 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Union Indians at Shoal Creek. Hopoeithleyohola 
and his Lieutenant, Haleck-Tustenugge, handled 
their men with the greatest skill and courage in an 
obstinate battle, but after four hours of resistance 
the overpowered Union Indians were driven, pursued 
by Stand Waitie's murderous half-breeds, who took 
no men and but few women and children prisoners. 

Back over the wide, shelterless prairie, bitten by 
the cruel cold and pelted by the storms of an unu- 
sually severe Midwinter, Hopoeithleyohola led his 
defeated band to a refuge in far-away Kansas. The 
weather was so severe that Col. Cooper reports some 
his men as frozen to death as they rode along, but 
the scent of blood was in the half-breed Stand 
Waitie's nostrils, and he pressed onward remorse- 
lessly. 

More than 1,000 men, women and children of Ho- 
poeithleyohola' s band left their homes to whiten and 
mark the dismal trail, and the aged Chief himself 
died shortly after reaching Fort Scott, where he was 
buried with all the honors of war. 

Upon the fertile Indian Territory descended the 
war storm which blighted the work of the mission- 
aries, and completely ruined the fairest prospects in 
our history for civilizing and Christianizing the 
aborigines. When the storm ended, one-quarter of 
the people had perished, the fences, houses, mills, 
schoolhouses and churches were all burnt, and the 
hundreds of thousands of horses, cattle, sheep and 
hogs had disappeared so completely that the Govern- 
ment was compelled to furnish the Indians with ani- 
mals to stock their farms anew. 

Sterling Price had reached his zenith in the cap- 
ture of Lexington, Sept. 20, 1861. In substantial 



HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS. 285 

results it was the biggest achievement of the war 
that far. Bull Run had been, indeed, a much larger 
battle, but at Lexington Price had captured 3,000 
prisoners, including five Colonels and 120 other com- 
missioned officers ; 1,000 horses and mules ; 100 wag- 
ons ; seven pieces of artillery ; 3,000 stands of arms ; 
$900,000 in money, and a very large quantity of 
Commissary and Quartermaster's supplies. 

Though he was to fight nearly four years longer 
with the greatest enterprise and determination, 
though he was to command vastly stronger forces, 
and though he was to be followed by myriads of 
Missourians with unfaltering courage and enthusi- 
asm, he was never to approach a parallel to this 
shining achievement. 

It was felt that Lexington was only the earnest of 
incomparably greater things he was going to do in 
delivering Missouri from the hated Yankees, and 
making hers the brightest star in the Southern Con- 
federacy, paling with her military glory even his- 
toric Virginia. Then McCulloch would come up with 
his Texans, Louisianians and Arkansans, and Albert 
Pike with his horde of Indians. There would be such 
an overthrow and annihilation of their enemies as 
the world had never before seen, followed by a race 
to get to St. Louis before Polk, Pillow and M. Jeff 
Thompson could reach her from down the Missis- 
sippi. 

Sterling Price was eager to fight Fremont among 
the rough, high lands south of Springfield, and his 
ardent followers wanted a repetition of the triumph 
of Lexington; but McCulloch would not come up 
from his fastness at Cross Hollows. Without him 
Sterling Price, his strength depleted by defections on 



286 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

his long retreat, did not feel warranted in offering 
battle, even with the advantage of the defensive hills. 

McCulloch was importuned to come forward with- 
out success. The best comfort he could give Sterling 
Price was to destroy that part of Missouri and make 
it worthless to the enemy. McCulloch wanted to ad- 
vance into Kansas, however, and utterly destroy that 
Territory, to strike terror to the Abolitionists. It 
speaks very badly for their intelligence system that 
both Price and McCulloch maintained, that neither 
of them was aware for days that the Union army 
had left Springfield, Nov. 8, on its retreat to Rolla 
and Sedalia. Although their camps were only some 
70 miles from Springfield, they did not learn of the 
retreat until Nov. 16, when McCulloch, seized at last 
with a sudden desire to enter Missouri, rushed all his 
mounted men forward in hopes to capture trains and 
detachments. They were disgusted to find upon ar- 
riving at Springfield that the last Union soldier and 
wagon had left there more than a week previous. 

After some destruction of property, McCulloch sul- 
lenly returned to his old position in Arkansas, where, 
leaving his command to Col. James Mcintosh, lately 
Captain in the United States Army, he departed for 
Richmond to give the Confederate War Department 
his version of the occurrences in his territory. 

Sterling Price had learned the same day, Nov. 16, 
of the departure of the Union army, and set his 
columns in motion northward, announcing that he 
was going to winter on the Missouri River. Again 
he sent an appeal to McCulloch to cooperate, but Col. 
Mcintosh declined, on the ground that the troops 
were not properly clad for the rigorous weather so 
far north, and, besides, he did not think that the ex- 
pedition would do any good. 



HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS. 287 



tQ^ 



Sterling Price simply let loose his army on the 
cou'ntry evacuated by the Union troops, and a reign 
of iadescribable misery ensued for the Union people 
and those who were vainly trying to keep the neutral 
middle of the road. The army was spread out as 
niuch as possible in order to gather in recruits and 
supplies and assert its influence most widely. 

From Marshall, in Saline Co., Sterling Price issued 
a most remarkable proclamation to the people, call- 
ing for 50,000 volunteers. He reminded them that 
their harvests had been reaped, their preparations 
for Winter had been made, and now they had leisure 
to do something to relieve the people from the "in- 
flictions of a foe marked with all the characteristics 
of barbarian warfare," He admitted that the great 
mass of the people were not in the war, and espe- 
cially the substantial portion of the population, for, 
he said, "boys and small property-holders have in 
the main fought the battles." He begged, he im- 
plored that the herdsman should leave his folds, the 
lawyer his office, and come into camp to win the vic- 
tory. He even dropped into poetry in his tearful 
earnestness, quoting the school boy's declamation 
from Marco Bozarris : 

strike, till the last armed foe expires; 
Strike, for your altars and your fires! 
Strike for the green graves of your sires, 
God, and your native land! 

An infinitely harmful part of the proclamation 
was the following : 

Leave your property at home. What if it be taken — all 
taken? We have $200,000,000 worth of Northern means in 
Missouri which cannot be removed. When we are once free 
the State will indemnify every citizen who may have lost a 
dollar by adhesion to the cause of his country. We shall have 
our property, or its value, with interest. 



288 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

This was naturally interpreted as meaning {>' ^, 
all those not distinctly favorable to Secession for- 
feited their property to those who were. 

This seemed ample warrant to the Poor White 
Trash banditti for seizure of the property of any 
man whose principles might not be of exactly ilie 
right shade. 

Experience teaches us that that class of people are 
pretty certain to find heterodox the opinions of any 
man who has something they, may want. It certainly 
made a very dark outlook for anybody in Missouri to 
hold moveable property. 

The turbid thrasonics of the proclamation shows 
that it was not written by Price's Adjutant-General, 
Thomas L. Snead, who was a literary man. He was 
then absent at Richmond looking after the fences of 
his General. The proclamation sounds the more as 
if it came from the pen of our poetical acquaintance, 
M. Jeff Thompson, the "Swamp Fox" of the Missis- 
sippi. It concluded in this perfervid style: 

But, in the name of God and the attributes of manhood, 
let me appeal to you by considerations infinitely higher than 
money! Are we a generation of driveling, sniveling, degraded 
slaves? Or are we men who dare assert and maintain the 
rights which cannot be surrendered, and defend those princi- 
ples of everlasting rectitude, pure and high and sacred, like 
God, their author? Be yours the office to choose between the 
glory of a free country and a just Government, and the bond- 
age of your children! I will never see the chains fastened 
upon my country. I will ask for six and one-half feet of 
Missouri soil in which to repose, but will not live to see my 
people enslaved. 

Do I hear your shouts? Is that your war-cry which echoes 
through the land? Are you coming? Fifty thousand men! 
Missouri shall move to victory with the tread of a giant! 
Come on, my brave boys, 50,000 heroic, gallant, unconquer- 
able Southern men! We await your coming. 

STERLING PRICE, 
Major-General Commanding. 

Sterling Price established his headquarters again 



HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS. 289 

at Osceola, on the banks of the Osage, but sent for- 
ward Gens. Rains and Steen to Lexington, the best 
point on the Missouri to hold the river and afford a 
passage for recruits coming in from the northern 
part of the State. 

The results of the proclamation were not commen- 
surate with the desperate urgency of the appeal. 
Large parties of recruits, it is true, tried to make 
their way toward Price's camp, but many of them 
were intercepted, and dispersed; strong blows were 
delivered against Price's outlying detachments, driv- 
ing them in from all sides. Meanwhile those he had 
in camp were melting away faster than new ones 
were coming in. 

Sterling Price had other troubles. He was not a 
favorite in Richmond. Jefferson Davis was a man 
never doubtful as to the correctness of his own ideas, 
and he was most certain of those relating to military 
men and affairs. He had had extraordinary oppor- 
tunities for familiarizing himself with all the fight- 
ing men, and possible fighting men, in the country. 
He graduated from West Point in 1828, 23d in a 
class of 33; none of whom, besides himself, became 
prominent. He had served seven years as a Lieuten- 
ant in the Regular Army on frontier duty, and as 
Colonel of a regiment in the Mexican War, where he 
achieved flattering distinction. He had been four 
years Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military 
Affairs, and four years Secretary of War. It must 
be admitted that his judgment with regard to officers 
was very often correct; yet he was a man of strong 
likes and dislikes. His reputation was that of "hav- 
ing the most quarrels and the fewest fights of any 
man in the Army." Undoubtedly his partialities 



290 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

drew several men into the Confederate army who 
would otherwise have remained loyal, and his antipa- 
thies retained some men in the Union army who 
would otherwise have gone South. His reasons for 
disliking Price are obscure, further than that Price 
was a civilian, who had had no Regular Army train- 
ing or experience, and that he believed Price to be in 
conspiracy to set up a Trans-Mississippi Confeder- 
acy. But little evidence of such intention is to be 
found anywhere, yet that little was sufficient for a 
man of Davis's jealous, suspicious nature. Repeat- 
edly, at the mere mention of Price's name, he flew 
into an undignified passion and denounced him un- 
sparingly. 

Price's men were carrying havoc as far as they 
could reach. Nov. 19 they burned the important lit- 
tle town of Warsaw, the County seat of Benton 
County and a Union stronghold. In 1860 the peo- 
ple of Benton County had cast but 74 votes for Lin- 
coln and but 100 for Breckinridge, while they gave 
Bell and Everett 306 votes and Douglas 574. Dec. 16 
Platte City, County seat of Piatt County, was nearly 
destroyed by them. This was another Union commu- 
nity, and a large majority of the people were Bell- 
and-Everett Unionists or Douglas Democrats. Dec. 20 
a concerted foray of guerrillas and bushwhackers 
burnt the bridges and otherwise crippled nearly 100 
miles of Northern Railroad. But Halleck's splendid 
systematizing had begun to tell. The northern part 
of Missouri was made unbearably hot for bridge- 
burners and other depredators by the swift execution 
of a number of "peaceful citizens" caught red- 
handed, and the probability that others would be 
caught and served in the same way. Gen. John Pope, 



HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS. 291 

commanding in Central Missouri, began at last to 
show the stuff that was in him, and by a skillful 
movement got into the rear of Rains and Steen, com- 
pelling them to hurriedly abandon the line of the 
Missouri River, and striking them so sharply in 
their flight as to capture 300 prisoners, 70 wagons, 
with loads of supplies for Price's army, and much 
other valuable booty. Another of Pope's columns, 
under Col. Jeff C. Davis, surprised a camp at Mil- 
ford, Dec. 18, and forced its unconditional surrender, 
capturing three Colonels (one of whom was a broth- 
er of Gov. Magoffin, of Kentucky), 17 Captains, and 
over 1,000 prisoners, 1,000 stands of arms, 1,000 
horses and mules, and a great amount of supplies, 
tents, baggage, and ammunition. In a couple of 
weeks Gen. Pope, with a loss of about 100 men, cap- 
tured 2,500 prisoners. 

Jan. 2 Gen. Fred Steele, commanding at Sedalia, 
and a level-minded man, who kept himself well in- 
formed, telegraphed to Gen. Halleck : 

Price's whole force not over 16,000. In all 63 pieces of 
artillery, none rifled. Horses very poor. Price says he is 
going to Jefferson City as soon as they are organized. At 
present he has no discipline; no sentinels or picket to prevent 
passing in and out. Rains drinking all the time. Price also 
drinking too much. 

Clearly Price had in him none of the startling ag- 
gressiveness which distinguished Lyon and Stone- 
wall Jackson. He made no effort to suddenly collect 
his forces and inflict an overwhelming blow upon one 
after another of the columns converging upon him 
and defeat them in detail. Instead, he lost heart, 
and, abandoning the strong lines of the Osage and 
the Pomme de Terre, fell back to Springfield, where 
comfortable quarters were built for his men, and he 



292 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

gathered in an abundance of supplies from the Union 
farmers of the surrounding country, expecting that 
he would be left undisturbed until Spring. 

Thus the year 1861 ended with some 61 battles 
and considerable skirmishes having been fought on 
the soil of Missouri, with a loss to the Union side of 
between 500 and 600 killed, treble that number 
wounded, and about 3,600 prisoners. 

The Confederate loss was probably in excess in 
most of the engagements. Besides, they had lost 
fully four-fifths of the State, and were in imminent 
danger of being driven from the restricted foothold 
they still retained in the southwestern corner. 

The Union State Government, with the conserva- 
tive, able Hamilton R. Gamble at the head, was run- 
aing with tolerable smoothness. Courts were sitting 
in most of the Counties to administer justice. Under 
Halleck's orders Judges, Sheriffs, Clerks, jurors, 
parties and witnesses had to take the oath of alle- 
giance. Gen. Schofield was rapidly organizing his 
13,000 Missouri Militia to maintain peace in the 
State, and incidentally to keep many of the men en- 
rolled out of the rebel army. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF THE STATE. 

WHEN he abandoned the strong line of the 
Osage and took up his position at Spring- 
field, Gen. Sterling Price, like the Russians 
against Napoleon, relied upon his powerful allies, 
Gens. January, February and March. At that time 
the roads in Missouri were merely rough trails, run- 
ning over hills and deep-soiled valleys of fertile 
loam, cut every few miles by rapid streams. The 
storms of Winter quickly converted the hills into icy 
precipices, the valleys into quagmires, and the 
streams into raging torrents. The Winters were 
never severe enough to give steady cold weather, and 
allow operations over a firmly-frozen footing. Rain, 
sleet and snow, hard frosts and warm thaws alter- 
nated with each other so frequently as to keep the 
roads in a condition of what the country people call 
a "breakup," when travel is very difficult for the 
individual and next to impossible for an army. 

When, therefore, at the last of December, Gen. 
Price returned to Sprin3:field, in the heart of the rich 
farming district of southwest Missouri, and 125 
miles or more distant from the Union bases — Rolla 
and Sedalia, at the ends of the railroads, he had 
much reason for believing he would be left undis- 
turbed for at least two months, which rest he very 
much needed to prepare for the strenuous campaign 
that he knew the industrious Halleck was organizing 
against him. He wanted the rest for many reasons. 
Yielding to the strong pressure of Missourians, Jef- 

(293) 



294 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

ferson Davis had agreed to appoint Price a Major- 
General, C. S. A., but upon the condition that he 
bring in the Confederate service a full division of 
Missouri troops. 

With his towering influence in Misssouri this 
would not have been a difficult thing to do with the 
whole State to draw from. It was quite otherwise 
with three-fourths of Missouri held by the Union 
troops and Halleck's well-laid nets everywhere to 
catch parties of recruits trying to make their way to 
Price. 

Still, Price was justified in his confidence that the 
Union troops would be satisfied with holding north- 
ern and central Missouri during the Winter, and 
would not venture far from their base of supplies on 
the Missouri River and the termini of the railroads 
at Rolla and Sedalia. 

Whatever aggressive disposition they might have 
which the condition of the roads would not dampen 
would be quelled by the knowledge that McCulloch's 
army of Texans, Louisianians, Arkansans and In- 
dians lay at Cross Hollow, within easy supporting 
distance of him. 

Therefore, Price settled down at Springfield, and 
his men built comfortable cabins in which to pass the 
time until Spring. The Union farmers in the coun- 
try roundabout were stripped of their grain and 
cattle fqr supplies, and Price proceeded with the or- 
ganization of his Confederate division. 

Jefferson Davis's feelings toward Price and Mis- 
souri are in a measure revealed in the following 
querulous letter, which also indicates Mr. Davis's 
tendencies to pose as a much-enduring, martyr-like 
man: 



PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF THE STATE. 295 



Hon. W. P. Harris, Confederate States Congress. 

My Dear Sir: Language was said by Talleyrand to be use- 
ful for the concealment of one's thoughts; but in our day it 
fails to communicate any thought. If it had been otherwise, 
the complaint in relation to Gen. Price of which you speak 
could not have been made. The Commissioners of Missouri 
were informed that when that State offered troops they would 
be organized according to our military laws, and Generals 
would be appointed for brigades and divisions. Until then 
I have no power to appoint Generals for those troops. The 
same statements, substantially, were made to the members of 
Congress from Missouri who called on me yesterday. They 
were also informed that, from conversation with informed 
persons and from correspondence now on file in the War 
Department, I was convinced that it was needful to the public 
interest that a General should be sent to the Arkansas and 
Missouri Division who had not been connected with any of 
the troops on that line of operations; and to the statement 
that the Missouri troops would not fully enlist under any one 
except Gen. Price, I asked if they required their General to 
be put in command of the troops of Arkansas, of Texas, and 
of the other Southern States. To bring these different forces 
into harmonious co-operation is a necessity. I have sought 
to effect it by selecting Gen. Heth to command them in com- 
bination. If it is designed, by calling Heth a West Point 
Cadet, merely to object to his education in the science of war, 
it may pass for what it is worth; but if it be intended to 
assert that he is without experience, his years of active and 
distinguished service on the frontier of Missouri and the 
territory west of it will, to those who examine before they 
censure, be a sufficient answer. The Federal forces are not 
hereafter as heretofore to be commanded by pathfinders and 
holiday soldiers, but by men of military education and ex- 
perience in war. The contest is therefore to be on a scale 
of very different proportions than that of the partisan war- 
fare witnessed during the past Summer and Fall. I have 
long since learned to bear hasty censure, in hope that justice, 
if tardy, is sure; and in any event to find consolation in the 
assurance that all my ends have been my country's. 

With high respect, 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Gen. Ben McCulloch thought best to go on to Rich- 
mond to explain his course since Wilson's Creek, and 
also to look after the very tender subject of his rank 
and powers. He left Gen. James S. Mcintosh in com- 
mand of his troops. Mcintosh had grievances of his 
own. He was not being recognized by the Confed- 
erate authorities as he thought a man of his abilities 
and soldierly experience should have been, and he 



296 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

seems to have liked cooperation with Gen. Price very 
much less even than did Gen. McCulloch. In no very- 
gentlemanly terms he repelled Price's proposition to 
combine their forces and push forward to the Mis- 
souri River. The best that Price could get out of 
him was the assurance that if the Federals ad- 
vanced upon him at Springfield he, Mcintosh, would 
come forward to his assistance. 

Price had greatly underestimated Gen. Halleck's 
energy and aggressiveness. Gen. Halleck was the 
first of our commanders to really rise to the level 
of the occasion and take a comprehensive grasp upon 
affairs. Unlike some others, he wasted no time in 
sounding proclamations or in lengthy letters of ad- 
vice to the Administration as to the political conduct 
of the war. He was a soldier, proud of his profes- 
sion, true to his traditions, and possibly had ambi- 
tion to be reckoned among the great commanders. 
He had been noted for high administrative ability, 
and this trait was well illustrated in his grasp of the 
situation in Missouri and on the borders of the State. 
His main communications to the people were orders, 
plain, practical, and to the point. Whatever he did 
was on the highest plane of the science of warfare as 
he understood it. 

Proper military discipline and subordination were 
introduced everywhere and a rigid system of ac- 
countability. He had troubles with his own men to 
add to his difficulties with the enemy. We find the 
most note of this with reference to the Germans. 

The Missouri Germans were a splendid lot of men, 
taken as a whole, and had an unusual number of offi- 
cers who were trained soldiers of considerable mili- 
tary experience. At the head of this class was Gen. 



PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF THE STATE. 297 

Peter J. Osterhaus, who had been a private soldier 
under Lyon in securing the Arsenal, and had com- 
manded a battalion with high credit to himself at 
Wilson's Creek. He was now a Colonel commanding 
a brigade. 

With this excellent material there was a large per 
cent that ranged from worthless to actually criminal. 
Many adventurers from the European armies had 
hastened to this country to sell their swords to the 
best advantage, and many black sheep, who had been 
forced out of their armies, sought in our troubles 
and our ignorance of military matters an oppor- 
tunity for their own exaltation and profit. Halleck 
dealt with all with a firm, unsparing hand. He be- 
gan to weed out the worthless officers and to court- 
martial the rascals. Company, battalion and regi- 
mental organizations which he found too mutinous 
and disorderly for hopeful management, he either 
disarmed and set to hard labor or discharged from 
the service. 

The raids of the vengeful Kansans across the Mis- 
souri borders gave him excessive annoyance, and he 
issued orders that all Kansas parties entering the 
State should be arrested and disarmed. That he 
might have more complete control of them, however, 
he recommended that the Department of Kansas be 
merged with his command, and as this was in har- 
mony with Gen. Hunter's ideas, it was subsequently 
done. In the meanwhile he had to look out for the 
Mississippi River and the highly important point of 
Cairo. He started to construct a fleet of gunboats to 
help control the river and assist the Army in its oper- 
ations. His next neighbor to the eastward was Maj. 
Gen. Don Carlos Buell, commanding the Department 



298 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

of the Ohio, which extended from the Cumberland 
River to the Allegheny Mountains. Gen. Buell's 
complete cooperation was necessary to the manage- 
ment of affairs in the Mississippi Valley, but this 
seems to have been difficult to secure. Buell had 
his own ideas, and they frequently did not harmonize 
with those of Gen. Halleck. Halleck recommended 
that Buell's Department be put under his own com- 
mand, which was also done later. 

Bridge-burning and other outrages by straggling 
bands claiming to be Confederates seriously dis- 
turbed the peace, embarrassed operations, and wor- 
ried the Commanding General. Halleck reported 
that within 10 days prior to Jan. 1, 1862, these 
bridge-burners had destroyed $150,000 worth of rail- 
road property and that they had concocted a plan to 
bum, simultaneously, every railroad bridge in the 
State, and set fire to the city of St. Louis in a num- 
ber of places. In his comprehensive order advising 
summary and severe punishment against these ma- 
rauders he took careful guards against such being 
made the pretext for any private venegance or offi- 
cial malice, and instituted Military Commissions of 
not less than three responsible officers, acting under 
the solemnity of an oath, and making written reports 
of their proceedings. This order brought down a 
storm of abuse from the Secessionist and semi-Seces- 
sionist press, which Halleck calmly disregarded. 

Gen. Sterling Price on Jan. 12 wrote Gen. Halleck 
a strong letter protesting against the order and ask- 
ing the question whether "individuals and parties of 
men specially appointed and instructed by me to de- 
stroy railroads, culverts, bridges, etc." were, if cap- 
tured, to be regarded as deserving of death. 



PRICE DRIVEN OUT OP THE STATE. 299 



Gen. Halleck in reply said : 

You also complain that "individuals and parties of men 
specially appointed and instructed by you to destroy railroads, 
culverts and bridges by tearing them up, burning, etc., have 
been arrested and subjected to a general court-martial for 
alleged crimes." This statement is in the main correct. 
Where "individuals and parties of men" violate the laws of 
war they will be tried, and if found guilty will certainly be 
punished, whether acting by your "special appointment and 
instruction" or not. You must be aware, General, that no 
orders of yours can save from punishment spies, marauders, 
robbers, incendiaries, guerrilla bands, etc., who violate the 
laws of war. You cannot give immunity to crime. But let 
us fully understand each other on this point. If you send 
armed forces wearing the garb of soldiers and duly organized 
and enrolled as legitimate belligerents to destroy railroads, 
bridges, etc., as a military act, we shall kill them, if possible, 
in open warfare, or, if we capture them, we shall treat them 
as pi'isoners of war. 

But it is well understood that you have sent numbers of 
your adherents in the garb of peaceful citizens, and under 
false pretenses, through our lines into northern Missouri, to 
rob and destroy the property of Union men and to burn and 
destroy railroad bridges, thus endangering the lives of thou- 
sands, and this, too, without any military necessity or possible 
military advantage. Moreover, peaceful citizens of Missouri, 
quietly working on their farms, have been instigated by your 
emissaries to take up arms as insurgents, to rob and plunder 
and to commit arson and murder. They do not even act 
under the garb of soldiers, but in false pretenses and in the 
guise of peaceful citizens. You certainly will not pretend 
that men guilty of such crimes, although "specially appointed 
and instructed by you," are entitled to the rights and immuni- 
ties of ordinary prisoners of war. If you do, will you refer 
me to a single authority on the laws of war which recognizes 
such a claim? 

You may rest assured. General, that all prisoners of war 
not guilty of crime will be treated with all proper considera- 
tion and kindness. With the exception of being properly 
confined, they will be lodged and fed, and where necessary 
clothed, the same as our own troops. I am sorry to say that 
our prisoners who have come from your camps do not report 
such treatment on your part. They say that you gave them 
no rations, no clothing, no blankets, but left them to perish 
with want and cold. Moreover, it is believed that you sub- 
sist your troops by robbing and plundering the non-combatant 
Union inhabitants of the southwestern Counties of this State. 
Thousands of poor families have fled to us for protection and 
support. They say that your troops robbed them of their 
provisions and clothing, carrying away their shoes and bed- 
ding, and even cutting cloth from their looms, and that you 
have driven women and children from their homes to starve 
and perish in the cold. I have not retaliated such conduct 
upon your adherents here, as I have no intention of waging 
such a barbarous warfare; but I shall, whenever I can, punish 
such crimes, by whomsoever they may be committed. 



300 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

An examination of the correspondence leads to the 
conclusion that Halleck possessed very superior tal- 
ents as a letter writer. 

Contrasted with Fremont, McClellan, Buell and 
others, Halleck gave great satisfaction in Washing- 
ton, and Secretary Stanton telegraphed him as fol- 
lows: 

Your energy and ability receive the strongest commenda- 
tion of this Department. You have my perfect confidence, 
and may rely upon the utmost support in your undertakings. 
The pressure of my engagements have prevented me from 
writing, but I shall do so fully in a day or two. 

Though he made the most of every resource, Hal- 
leck was sorely pressed for money and supplies for 
his force. His letters and messages mention the 
shipment of pantaloons to this one, shoes to an- 
other, blankets to a third, as he could get hold of ar- 
ticles to supply present wants, and of counsels of 
patience as to delays in paying off, since the Paymas- 
ters were far behind in their work. Jan. 17 he tele- 
graphed to Gen. Curtis: 

General: Yours of yesterday received. I regret to inform 
you that neither the Pay nor Quartermaster's Departments 
have any money. Troops are sent from here to Cairo with- 
out pay. I can do no better for you. The moment money 
is received the forces under your command shall be supplied. 
They were all paid to the 31st of October. Some here and 
in north Missouri are not paid for September and October. 
I have done everything in my power for the troops at Rolla, 
and they have no cause to complain of me. 

The truth is that Congress is so busy discussing the eternal 
nigger question that they fail to make any appropriations, 
and the financial departments are dead broke. No requisi- 
tions for money are filled. 

The extra-duty pay will be forthcoming as soon as we get 
any money. Assure these men that they will be paid, but 
they must have patience. I am doing everything in my 
power for them. 

We must all do the best we can to make the men com- 
fortable and contented till we get more means. I rely upon 
you to use all your powers of conciliation, especially with the 
German troops. You told me you could manage them, and 
I rely upon you to do it. At present we have more diflSculties 
to conquer with our own men than with the enemy. 



PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF THE STATE. 301 

While engaged in these numberless activities Gen. 
Halleck came down with a severe attack of measles, 
and was confined to his room for two weeks, but 
there does not appear to have been any intermit- 
tence in his energy. 

Gen. Halleck's plans contemplated sending for- 
ward a column sufficient to crush Price, if he could 
be brought to battle, and drive him out of the State 
anyway. Another column was to advance from 
Ironton or Fredericktown and interpose between 
Polk at Columbus and Price, to prevent the former 
from assisting the latter. In the meanwhile Gen. 
Polk would have sufficient to occupy his attention in 
his "Gibraltar," as Gen. Grant would make a flank 
movement up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. 
Halleck had come to the conclusion that Columbus 
would cost too much in life and blood to be taken by 
a direct assault, and it would be better therefore to 
turn it. 

This plan was an excellent one, as Halleck's plans 
usually were, at that time, and it was subsequently 
carried out substantially as conceived. 

There were the most conflicting reports as to the 
number of men Price had with him at Springfield at 
that time, but it was supposed all the way from 25,- 
000 to 50,000, with rather the stronger emphasis on 
the greater number. The Secessionists insisted upon 
the immensity of the army which had flocked to 
Price encouraged by the events untoward to the 
Union cause of the last half of 1861 and the indig- 
nation aroused by the invasion and depredations of 
the Kansas Jayhawkers and the "St. Louis Dutch." 

It was reasonable to suppose, from the state of 
feeling in Missouri, that Price might have from 40,- 



302 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

000 to 50,000 men, but Halleck, who was unusually 
well-informed for our Generals at that period of 
the war, decided that a column of about 10,000 men 
would be sufficient for the work. In this he was at 
a disagreement with Gen. Curtis and others in 
nearer contact with Price, who estimated the Seces- 
sionist force at Springfield in the neighborhood of 
20,000 or 25,000. Yielding to their urgent represen- 
tations, he increased his force to about 15,000, of 
which 3,000 were required to guard the lengthening 
line of communications, leaving a movable column 
of 12,000 to move directly against Price. This force 
was officially designated the "Army of the South- 
west," and there was assigned to its command our 
old acquaintance, Brig.-Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, West 
Point graduate, lawyer, Mexican veteran, railroad 
engineer, and Congressman. This made more or 
less heart-burning among Brig.-Gens. Franz Sigel, 
B. M. Prentiss, S. A. Hurlbut, S. D. Sturgis and 
others who had hopes in that direction. Sigel stood 
no chance for the place, however, for Halleck had 
conceived a strong distrust of him growing out of 
his action at Wilson's Creek, and also because he was 
a leader among the radical Germans who wanted to 
pull slavery up by the roots. Sturgis felt that more 
consideration should have been given to him as 
commander of the army at Wilson's Creek after 
Lyon fell. Curtis, in turn, gave strong dissatisfac- 
tion to some of the brigade commanders by selecting 
Jeff C. Davis, a Captain in the Regular Army and 
Colonel of the 22d Ind., and Eugene A. Carr, also a 
Captain in the Regular Army and Colonel of the 3d 
111. Cav., to command two of his four divisions. 
In its forward movement the commanders had the 



PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF THE STATE. 303 

benefit of the burning zeal of the young volunteers. 
These, who had enlisted to put down the rebellion, 
wanted to lose no time in doing their work. They 
were not minded to lie around camps, no matter how 
comfortable, during the long Winter months. In 
the Northern homes from which they came the Win- 
ter had always been a season of great activity. They 
could not understand why it should not be so in Mis- 
souri and they hungered for active employment 
to the great end of suppressing the rebellion. Their 
recent successes had inspired them with hopes that 
they might be able to finish up the work and get back 
home in time for their Spring duties. 

Though the Winter of 1861-'62 was an exception- 
ally hard, disagreeable one in Missouri, the volun- 
teers left their camps with alacrity, pressing for- 
ward through the storms and mud with sanguine 
hopefulness that they were now about to accomplish 
their great purpose. Gen. Curtis selected his first 
base at Lebanon, 55 miles distant from Springfield, 
and sent forward Col. Carr with about 1,700 infan- 
try and cavalry to occupy that point, gain informa- 
tion as to the condition of things in Price's camp, 
and to set on foot preparation for supplying the ad- 
vancing army from the surrounding country. 

The Union commanders were to learn a lesson 
from Price, who did not encumber himself with long 
trains, but "compelled war to support war" by draw- 
ing his supplies from the country through which he 
operated. Under Halleck's orders Gen. Curtis di- 
rected that the cavalry should locate all the mills con- 
venient to the line of march, set them to work grind- 
ing grain, and encourage the Union farmers to bring 
in their grain, hogs and cattle, for which the Quar- 



304 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

termaster would pay them fair prices. This work 
was an admirable education for Halleck's Chief 
Quartermaster, a young Captain named Philip H. 
Sheridan, who was to turn the lessons then learned 
to magnificent account afterwards. 

Lebanon was taken possession of without more 
resistance than a running fight in which a notorious 
Capt. Tom Craig, of the Confederate army, was 
killed. Gen. Curtis arrived at Lebanon Jan. 31, leav- 
ing Sigel and Asboth at Rolla to follow as fast as the 
roads would permit. The recent severe storms of 
sleet and snow had been quite trying to the men and 
animals, but the columns were pressed forward, and 
on Feb. 7 Sigel's and Asboth's men were all in 
Lebanon, where they were joined by Jeff C. Davis's 
Division marching from Otterville by the way of 
Linn Creek. 

Halleck's orders to Curtis were clear, comprehend- 
ing and purposeful. Curtis seems to have been not 
a little apprehensive of the force he might have to 
encounter, but Halleck constantly urged him for- 
ward, at the same time enjoining him to keep his 
troops well in hand, and not allow Price to attack 
him in detail. He was to ''throw out his cavalry 
carefully, like fingers to the hands." Most particu- 
larly he was not to allow Sigel to go off on any inde- 
pendent expedtion and serve him as Sigel had served 
Lyon at Wilson's Creek. Halleck urged Hunter to 
advance his Kansas troops down through his de- 
partment so as to threaten Price's left flank, and he 
told Curtis that if he, Curtis, would take care of 
Price, that he himself would look out for Johnson, 
Polk, Beauregard and Hardee. 

The splendid young Missouri, Iowa and Illinois 



PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF THE STATE. 305 

volunteers, welded into superb regiments by months 
of service, with the worthless of their officers re- 
moved by Halleck's rigid pruning, pressed forward 
with an enthusiasm that no storms could diminish 
or wretchedness of roads discourage. They forded 
swollen, icy streams, pulled their wagons up steep 
hills, or pried them out of quagmires, and bore the 
fury of the storm with sanguine cheerfulness, be- 
lieving they were now moving directly forward to 
the great end of crushing the enemies of the Gov- 
ernment and closing the war. 

Price's outlying detachments were come up with 
and struck with a suddenness and vigor that sent 
them flying in utter rout. It speaks very ill for 
Price, with all his means for accurate information, 
that he knew nothing of this rapid advance of the 
Union army until the heads of Curtis's columns were 
at his very pickets. He was entirely unready for 
battle, and could only hastily gather his men together 
and make a quick retreat to the rough hills south of 
Springfield, leaving all his stores and his laboriously- 
constructed cantonments for the Union army. Feb. 
13 Curtis had the satisfaction of reporting to Hal- 
leck as follows : 



The Flag of the Union floats over the Court House of 
Springfield, Mo. The enemy attacked us with small parties 
at 10:30 o'clock 12 miles out, and my front guards had a 
running fire with them most of the afternoon. At dusk a 
regiment of the Confederate cavalry attacked the outer picket, 
but did not move it. A few shots from a howitzer killed two 
and wounded several. The regiment retreated to this place, 
and the enemy immediately commenced the evacuation of the 
city. I entered the city at 10 a. m. My cavalry is in full 
pursuit. They say the enemy is making a stand at Wilson's 
Creek. Forage, flour and other stores in large quantities 
taken. Shall pursue as fast as the strength of the men will 
allow. 



306 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

In Gen. Sheridan's ''Memoirs" he gives this side- 
light on the advance upon Springfield: 

By hard work we soon accumulated a sufficient quantity of 
flour and corn meal to justify the resumption of our march on 
Springfield, at or near which point the enemy was believed to 
be awaiting us, and the order was given to move forward, the 
Commanding General cautioning me, in the event of disaster, 
to let no salt fall into Gen. Price's hands. Gen. Curtis made 
a hobby of this matter of salt, believing the enemy sadly in 
need of that article, and he impressed me deeply with his 
conviction that our cause would be seriously injured by a loss 
which would inure so greatly and peculiarly to the enemy's 
benefit; but we discovered afterward, when Price abandoned 
his position, that about all he left behind was salt. 

When we were within about eight miles of Springfield Gen. 
Curtis decided to put his troops in line of battle for the ad- 
vance on the town, and directed me to stretch out my supply 
train in a long line of battle, so that in falling back, in case 
the troops were repulsed, he could rally the men on the 
wagons. I did not like the tactics, but, of course, obeyed the 
order. 

The line moved on to Springfield, and took the town without 
resistance, the enemy having fled southward, in the direction 
of Pea Ridge, the preceding day. Of course, our success re- 
lieved my anxiety about the wagons; but fancy has often pic- 
tured since the stampede of six-mule teams that, had we met 
with any reverse, would have taken place over the prairies of 
southwest Missouri. 

It was felt almost certain that Price had only 
abandoned Springfield in order to offer battle more 
advantageously in the rough hills south of the town 
where Wilson's Creek had been fought. The spirit 
of the army was up, and it moved promptly forward 
to engage him in his chosen fastness. The Seces- 
sionist historians and the admirers of Price, Mar- 
maduke, Shelby and others give thrillingly san- 
guinary stories of the fierce resistance offered in the 
defiles and passes through the foothills of the Ozarks, 
but these statements are not supported by either the 
official reports or the regimental histories of the 
Union army. These all concur in the statement that 
while there was a great deal of noisy cannonading, 
Price's troops yielded ground quite easily, and all 



PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF THE STATE. 307 

were surprised that no more effective resistance was 
made at places that offered such wonderful oppor- 
tunities for defense. 

In his report to Gov. Jackson Gen. Price gives this 
succinct statement of his share in the movement : 

About the latter part of January my scouts reported that 
the enemy were concentrating in force at Rolla, and shortly 
thereafter they occupied Lebanon. Believing that this move- 
ment could be for no other purpose than to attack me, and 
knowing that my command was inadequate for such resist- 
ance as the interest of my army and the cause demanded, I 
appealed to the commanders of the Confederate troops in 
Arkansas to come to my assistance. This from correspond- 
ence I was confidently led to expect, and, relying upon it, I 
held my position to the very last moment, and, as the sequel 
proved, almost too long, for on Wednesday, Feb. 12, my 
pickets were driven in, and reported the enemy advancing 
upon me in force. No resource was now left me except re- 
treat, without hazarding all with greatly unequal numbers 
upon the result of one engagement. This I deemed it unwise 
to do. I commenced retreating at once. I reached Cassville 
with loss unworthy of mention in any respect. Here the 
enemy in my rear commenced a series of attacks running 
through four days. Retreating and fighting all the way to 
Cross Hollows, in this State, I am rejoiced to say my com- 
mand, under the most exhausting fatigue all that time, with 
but little rest for either man or beast and no sleep, sustained 
themselves and came through, repulsing the enemy upon 
every occasion with great determination and gallantry. My 
loss does not exceed four to six killed and some 15 to 18 
wounded. That of the enemy we know to be ten times as 
great. 

Gen. Price's estimate of the losses he inflicted is 
widely divergent from that of Gen. Curtis, who does 
not admit any losses in killed in the noisy engage- 
ments while pushing Price back through the rough 
gorges, until he arrived at the Sugar Creek Crossing, 
six miles into Arkansas, where he lost 13 killed and 
15 or 20 wounded in a very spirited little fight with 
the combined troops of Price and McCuUoch, and 
camped that night upon the battlefield from which 
the enemy had retreated. Here Col. Cyrus Bussey 
joined him with five companies of the 3d Iowa Cav., 
having made a forward march from Rolla, Mo., 
in four days. 



308 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Curtis was so encouraged by his success that he 
kept on pushing Price back upon McCulloch, even 
upon the boasted "Gibraltar" at Cross Hollows, and 
then, to the astonishment and delight of himself and 
the whole army, forced the evacuation of this strong- 
hold by a flank movement. The rebels' abandon- 
ment of it was so complete that they burned all their 
stores and the great array of cabins built for quar- 
ters, leaving only the chimneys to mark the long 
rows. 

Thus any expectation of a sanguinary battle fell 
in disappointment. So much had been said about 
Cross Hollows that the Union troops were certain 
that they would have to fight a desperate battle at 
or near it. It was known that at least 4,000 regu- 
larly-organized troops had been quartered there for 
months, subjected to thorough drill and discipline. 
Gen. McCulloch had boasted that he had prepared a 
trap in which to catch and ruin the Federal General 
if he ventured that far south, McCulloch's only 
fear was of being unable to draw the Federal 
General into the trap. 

The Confederates left their sick and wounded be- 
hind them in the hospitals, and the untiring Gen. 
Asboth, commanding the cavalry, pushed the rear 
guard rapidly through to Bentonville. Returning 
to Curtis's camp a day or two later. Gen. Asboth was 
sent with a force of cavalry to Fayetteville, a most 
important town in northwestern Arkansas, where he 
learned that his enemies had hid themselves in the 
Boston Mountains. 

Gen. Curtis had completed his work of driving 
Price from Missouri and some distance beyond her 
borders. He then drew his forces together and 



PRICE DRIVEN OUT OP THE STATE. 309 

established himself at Cross Hollows, with the ulti- 
mate intention of retiring to the better position of 
Sugar Creek Crossing, in the event of the enemy 
concentrating any force against him. In the mean- 
while he would hope that the turning movements 
which Halleck had planned would occupy Price's and 
McCulloch's attention, and draw them away from 
him. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS carried out his determina- 
tion to appoint an officer superior in rank to 
botli Gens. McCulloch and Price. After first 
appointing Gen. Harry Heth, and then offering the 
appointment to Gen. Braxton Bragg, he selected 
another of his favorites, Gen. Earl Van Dorn, who 
had been a fiery partisan among the officers of the 
Regular Army for States Rights and Secession, was 
a native of Mississippi, and had graduated from 
West Point in 1842, 52d in a class of 56. Whatever 
his intellectual qualities may have been, he was a 
man of great force and energy, and had won two 
brevets for distinguished gallantry in the Mexican 
War. He gained still more distinction by his suc- 
cessful expeditions against the fierce Comanches, a 
tribe then in the hight of its power. In one of these 
his small command killed 56 Indians. In his engage- 
ments with the Comanches he had received four 
wounds, two of which were quite serious. He had 
been very active in bringing about Gen. Twiggs's dis- 
graceful surrender of his command in Texas. 

When Jefferson Davis, as Secretary of War, 
organized the additional regiments for the Regular 
Army he took particular pains to promote into them 
men of his way of thinking on States Rights, and 
who would be useful in the coming contest which he 
foresaw. 

One of these new regiments, — then called the 2d 
U. S. Cav., later changed to the 5th U. S. Cav., was 

(310) 



GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND. 311 

quite remarkable for this selection, as it showed Mr. 
Davis's thorough acquaintance with the character 
of the Regular officers, and what they could be relied 
upon to do when Secession should be brought about. 
He made Colonel of the regiment Albert Sidney- 
Johnston, later General, C. S. A.; Lieutenant- 
Colonels, Robert E. Lee, afterward General, C. S. A. ; 
W. J. Hardee, Lieutenant-General, C. S. A., and E. 
Kirby Smith, General, C. S. A., and the Majors were 
George H. Thomas, W. H. Emory, Major-Generals, 
U. S. A., and Earl Van Dorn, Major-General, C. S. A. 

Mississippi seceded Jan. 9, 1861. Earl Van Dorn 
promptly tendered his resignation and became active, 
if he had not been before, in bringing about the sur- 
render by Gen. Twiggs of the United States troops, 
stores and munitions of war in Texas, by which we 
lost nearly half of the entire strength of the Regular 
Army, besides some $2,000,000 of supplies, the con- 
trol of the Mexican frontier, and a large por- 
tion of Indian frontier. Van Dorn had been 
commissioned Colonel in the Confederate army, and 
hoped to add the surrendered troops to the military 
establishment of the Southern Confederacy. He put 
a great deal of pressure upon the officers and men to 
induce them to change their allegiance, but was re- 
markably unsuccessful in the latter, not a single 
enlisted man accepting his offers of promotion and 
increased pay. Only those officers went over whose 
course had been predetermined. None of previous 
loyalty wavered for an instant. 

Gen. Twiggs had made a capitulation with Gen. 
McCulloch, of Texas, as if treating with another 
Nation. The terms were that the troops should be 
conveyed to the nearest seaport, and thence sent 



312 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

home. The steamer "Star of the West," which had 
come into notoriety as being the object at which the 
first gun of the rebellion was aimed, had been sent 
to Indianola, Tex., to receive Twiggs's troops. Van 
Dorn, enraged by his failure to accomplish his pur- 
pose, violated the terms of the capitulation. He 
marched his forces upon the unarmed troops gath- 
ered near Indianola, compelled them to surrender, 
and captured the "Star of the West." The officers 
and men were kept prisoners in Texas for months 
afterwards, and subjected to much hardship. 

Halleck wrote to Curtis: "Beware of Van Dorn. 
He is an energetic officer." 

Van Dorn was not to justify the high expectations 
entertained of him, and after several failures to im- 
prove great opportunities he finally fell, in 1863, at 
the age of 42, before the pistol of an injured hus- 
band. 

Van Dorn promptly repaired to his command, and 
seems to have been welcomed with entirely loyal sub- 
ordination by both Price and McCulloch, though both 
were much older than he, and had held higher com- 
mands, Gen. Price having been a Brigadier-General 
at a time when Van Dorn was only a First Lieu- 
tenant. 

At first Van Dorn meditated moving into Missouri 
by the Pocahontas route, intermediate between the 
Mississippi route and that by the way of Springfield. 
He began assembling troops at Jacksonport, Ark., to 
move directly up through the Ozark Mountains. 
Then the isolated situation of Gen. Curtis's little 
army, with scattered detachments thrown out in 
every direction, tempted him to concentrate suddenly 
his forces and make the effort to cut off the outlying 



GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND. 313 

Union detachments and finally crush the main body. 
Therefore, he hastened to the Boston Mountains, 
sending messages to the scattered Confederates to 
meet him there, and was welcomed on a chilly, 
snowy March 3 with the Major-General's salute of 
40 guns, which were heard by Gen. Curtis at Cross 
Hollow. 

After driving Gen. Price off into the Boston Moun- 
tains and successfully flanking Gen. McCulloch out 
of his "Gibraltar" at Cross Hollow, Gen. Curtis pru- 
dently halted his army there to consider his next 
move. The line of Sugar Creek offered fine oppor- 
tunities for defense, and from there he could hope 
to maintain his communications along the great road 
leading to Springfield and Rolla. Not having been 
able to force either McCulloch or Price to a decisive 
battle in which he might destroy or at least cripple 
them, it did not seem discreet to venture further for- 
ward where every step made them stronger and him 
weaker. 

Halleck had relied upon Gen. Hunter sending down 
a flanking column from Leavenworth by the way 
of Fort Scott, but this had not materialized, owing 
to the disputes between Gens. Hunter and Jas. H. 
Lane. Thus 5,000 men who should have been 
effectively employed, either in menacing Van Dorn's 
flank or increasing Curtis's strength, were held idly, 
at Leavenworth. 

Halleck had also relied upon the effect of Gen. 
Grant's startling victory at Fort Donelson, which 
shattered the first Confederate line, to withdraw a 
large portion of the forces west of the Mississippi, 
and relieve pressure upon Curtis. Nor had this at 
that time resulted. Though the general Confederate 



314 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

line had fallen back to Corinth, Van Dorn, anxious 
to distinguish himself in his new field, proposed to 
advance independent of this recession, and by a bold, 
quick stroke retrieve the Confederate disaster east 
of the Mississippi. 

Gen. Curtis had divided his army into four so- 
called divisions of two brigades each. The divisions 
were not stronger than ordinary brigades. 

The organization was as follows: 

FIRST DIVISION. 

Col. Peter J. Osterhaus commanding. 

First Brigade, Col. W. N. Coler — 17th Mo., Maj. A. H. Poten; 
25th 111., Maj. Richard H. Nodine; 44th 111., Col. C. Knobels- 
dorff. 

Second Brigade, Col. N. Greusel — 12th Mo., Maj. Hugo 
Wangelin; 3 6th 111.; Capts. Jenks's and Smith's companies of 
Illinois Cavalry; Welfley's Battery, Mo. L. A.; Capt. Louis 
Hoffman's 4th Ohio Battery. 

SECOND DIVISION. 

Brig.-Gen. A. Asboth commanding. 

First Brigade, Col. Frederick Schaefer — 2d Mo., Lieut. -Col. 
B. Laibold; 15th Mo., Col. Francis J. Joliat. 

Not Brigaded — 4th Mo. Cav., Maj. G. Heinrichs; 5th Mo. 
Cav., Col. Joseph Nemett; Mo. L. A. Battery, Capt. G. M. 
Elbert; 2d Ohio Battery, Lieut. Chapman. 

THIRD DIVISION. 

Col. Jeff C. Davis commanding. 

First Brigade, Col. Thos. Pattison — 8th Ind., Col. Wm. P. 
Benton; 18th Ind., Lieut.-Col. Henry D. Washburn; 22d Ind., 
Lieut. -Col. John A. Hendricks; 1st Ind. Battery, Capt. Martin 
Klauss. 

Second Brigade, Col. Julius White — 37th 111., Lieut.-Col. 
Myron S. Barnes; 5 9th 111., Lieut.-Col. C. H. Frederick; 1st Mo. 
Cav., Col. C. A. Ellis; Battery, 111. L. A., Capt Peter' Davidson. 

FOURTH DIVISION. 

Col. Eugene A. Carr commanding. 

First Brigade, Col. G. M. Dodge — 4th Iowa, Lieut.-Col. John 
Galligan; 35th 111., Col. G. A. Smith; 1st Iowa Battery, Capt. 
J. A. Jones. 

Second Brigade, Col. Wm. Vandever — 9th Iowa, Lieut.-Col. 
F. J. Herron; Mo. Infantry, Col. John S. Phelps; 3d 111. Cav., 
Maj. John McConnell; 3d Iowa Battery, Capt. M. M. Hayden. 

Unassigned — 3d Iowa Cav., Col. Cyrus Bussey; Battalion 
Mo. Cav., Maj. W. D. Bowen; 24th Mo., Maj. Eli Weston. 



GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND. 315 

Feb. 12 Gen. Curtis reported his entire strength 
to be 12,095 men and 50 cannon. Of these one gun 
and, about 1,500 men were patrolling the long line 
of communications, leaving 10,500 men and 49 pieces 
of artillery actually with Curtis, 

From this again must be deducted Maj. Conrad's 
detachment of 250 men, so far away as to be unable 
to reach the main body until after the battle. Thus 
Curtis had almost exactly 10,000 men. 

The great distance back to the base of supplies and 
the terrible roads made it necessary to subsist as far 
as possible off the country. That part of Arkansas 
was settled by much the same people as lived around 
Springfield, with many thrifty farmers who had 
made a fair start toward developing good home- 
steads. The troops were scattered out in front of 
Sugar Creek over a distance of 60 miles, gathering in 
corn and wheat, and running the mills that had 
escaped McCulloch's torch, to supply breadstuffs. 
Cattle and hogs were taken and paid for, and the 
cavalry, artillery and train animals were turned out 
to graze wherever pastures could be found. The 
Union advance had been pushed as far south as the 
important little town of Fayetteville, but this was 
feared to be too near the Boston Mountains, and it 
was retired, leaving a large number of Union men 
who had shown their colors to the vengeance of Mc- 
Culloch and their rebel neighbors. 

The majority of the people of that section being 
devoted Unionists, Gen. Curtis easily kept himself 
well-informed as to the movements of his enemies. 
He had decided, in the event of an advance, to take 
his stand at Pea Ridge, an abrupt elevation at the 
foot of which Sugar Creek ran to the westward. All 



316 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

the roads leading northward crossed Sugar Creek, 
and several of them came together some two or three 
miles north of a country hostelry known as Elkhorn 
Tavern on the main road to Springfield, at the north- 
eastern end of Pea Ridge. 

At 2 p. m., March 4, Gen. Curtis was at Cross 
Hollow with Col. Carr's Fourth Division. The ex- 
treme left of his army was Col. Wm. Vandever, of 
the 9th Iowa, at War Eagle Mills, near White River, 
42 miles to the southeast. The extreme right — the 
First and Second Divisions, under Gen. Franz Sigel 
— was at Cooper's Farm, four miles in front of Ben- 
tonville and 14 miles to the southwest of Sugar 
Creek. The Third Division, under Col. Jefferson C. 
Davis, had moved back to the line selected in rear 
of Sugar Creek, where Col. Bussey with his regiment 
was in camp. 

By 2 o'clock scouts and fugitives had convinced 
Gen. Curtis that Van Dorn had concentrated his 
forces, and was in rapid march upon him, only a few 
miles away. He sent orders by swift riders to all 
his outlying parties to march at once to the desig- 
nated rendezvous at Sugar Creek, and started back 
himself with Carr's Division, arriving on the crest 
about 2 a. m. of March 5, and immediately setting 
his men to wrrk preparing for the battle. Col. 
Dodge worked untii midnight blockading with fallen 
trees the road from Bentonville to Springfield west 
of Leetown. 

In spite of their wide dispersion, Gen. Van Dorn 
brought McCulloch's, Pike's and Price's forces to- 
gether with great rapidity. How many fighting men 
he was able to assemble is a question. Gen. Curtis 
gravely estimated it at 30,000. Gen. Van Dorn in 



GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKE3 COMMAND. 317 

his reports after the battle, when he was putting the 
best face upon matters, stated his force at one time 
at 16,000 men, and again at "less than 14,000." 

Probably if we follow an old arithmetical device, 
adding Curtis's overstatement and Van Dorn's 
understatement together and dividing the sum by 
two — the number of statements — we may get some- 
what near the truth. This would give Van Dorn 
22,000 men. Students since the war have arrived 
at the conclusion that he actually had 26,000 men. 

Analysis of the various reports points to this being 
nearly correct. 

Feb. 24 — nine days before the battle — Van Dorn 
reported to Albert Sidney Johnston that with the 
combined forces of McCulloch, Pike and Price, he 
would "be able to take about 26,000 men into battle." 

The best organized and drilled troops west of the 
Mississippi were McCulloch's. March 2 he reported 
his "effective total" to be 8,384 men, with 18 cannon. 
He received some accessions after that, raising his 
whole force to nearly 10,000 men. 

His division was organized as follows : 

FIRST BRIGADE. 

Col. James Mcintosh commanding — 1st Ark. M. R., Col. 
T. J. Churchill; 2d Ark. M. R., Col. James Mcintosh; 4th (9th) 
Tex. Cav., Col. W. B. Sims; 6th Tex. Cav., Col. B. W. Stone; 
South Kansas-Texas Regiment, Col. E. Greer; Lamar Cav., 
Capt. H. S. Bennett. 

SECOND BRIGADE. 

Col. Louis Hebert commanding — 4th Ark., Col. E. McNair; 
14th Ark., Col. M. C. Mitchell; 16th Ark., Col. Hill; 17th Ark.. 
Col. Frank Rector; 21st Ark., Col. D. McRae; 1st Ark. Battery, 
Maj. W. H. Brooks; 3d La., Col. Louis Hebert; Tex. Cav., Col. 
W. C. Young; Tex. M. R., Maj. J. W. Whitfield; Art. Bat. (four 
companies), Capt. W. R. Bradfute. 

Nothing definite can be ascertained as to Albert 
Pike's force. A short time before the battle he 



318 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

wrote confidently about having 10,000 men. The 
force he actually brought up is generally stated at 
6,000, two of the regiments being white. 

The following extract from Gen. Sterling Price's 
report of March 22 — eight days after the battle — 
gives us the best obtainable idea of the strength and 
organization of his force : 

My forces consisted of the First Brigade, Missouri Vol- 
unteers, Col. Henry Little commanding; the Second Brigade, 
Brig.-Gen. Slack commanding; a battalion of cavalry, under 
command of Lieut. -Col. Cearnal, and the State troops, under 
the command of Brig.-Gens. Rains, Green, and Frost, Cols. 
John B. Clark, Jr., and James P. Saunders, and Maj. Lind- 
say; numbering in all 6,818 men, with eight batteries of 
light artillery. 

Price, most probably, did not differ from other 
beaten commanders in minimizing his force to the 
utmost, so that it is entirely reasonable to as- 
sume that he had 2,000 or 3,000 more than he 
reported. Probably he and Van Dorn excluded from 
their fighting strength thousands, like Pike's In- 
-lians, who proved themselves worthless in the actual 
shock of battle. 

Therefore we have the following aggregate of 
minimum strength : 

McCulloch 10,000 

Pike 6,000 

Price 9,000 

25,000 

It seems, therefore, entirely fair to say that Van 
Dorn had at least double Curtis's 10,000 when he 
left Cove Creek on the morning of March 4, with 
three days' cooked rations in his men's haversacks, 
and the intention of destroying the invaders and re- 
covering the State of Missouri. 

Both sides were keenly eager for battle. The Con- 



GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND. 319 

federates had been harangued with stories of great 
victories in the East, which they were to emulate; 
the Indians were fierce for scalps and plunder; the 
Missourians burning to march back to their homes 
in triumph. 

On the other hand, Curtis's men, weary of inter- 
minable marching and skirmishing, longed to deliver 
a decisive blow which would end all. 

Van Dorn's plan of battle was well-conceived, and 
if his immense preponderance of force had been 
adequately handled it would have won a crushing 
victory. 

McCulloch, during his long stay at Cross Hollow, 
had familiarized himself with the ground, and Price 
was also well acquainted with it. In the conference 
held in Gen. Van Dorn's tent it was decided not to 
attack in front, where Gen. Curtis had prepared, and 
where he had in addition to his obstructions the 
advantage of the steep side of the ridge. Instead, 
a movement would be made on Bentonville, to the 
southwest of Curtis, where it was hoped to catch 
Sigel and destroy him before he could receive assist- 
ance, then destroy Curtis before Vandever's Brigade 
could reach him from Huntsville. Pike's Indians 
were to follow McCulloch's Division, and when Cur- 
tis was beaten the wild Indian riders would be let 
loose to exterminate the fugitives. 

Sigel, with his usual indifference to orders, did not 
immediately obey Curtis's command to abandon his 
camp four miles west of Bentonville and move back 
to Sugar Creek. Instead he deferred starting his 
troops from Cooper's Farm until 2 o'clock of the 
morning of the 6th, and stopped himself with a small 
force at Bentonville while his troops and train were 



320 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

passing through the town, and he was attacked about 
11 o'clock. Van Dorn reports that it was 11 o'clock 
before he could get the head of his column to Ben- 
tonville, and "we had the mortification of seeing 
Sigel's Division, 7,000 strong, leaving it as we 
entered. Had we been an hour sooner we should 
have cut him right off with his whole force, and cer- 
tainly have beaten the enemy the next day." 

Sigel had kept back about 600 men. His troops 
were part of the 12th Mo. and seven companies of 
cavalry, besides five field guns. They were resting 
with stacked arms when the rebel cavalry swarmed 
in upon the town from various directions. Sigel 
was able, however, to get his men together and 
march out of town to cover of some woods, where his 
artillery drove back the Confederates, who charged 
them, and the retreat was resumed. 

This performance was repeated several times 
along the road, which ran around the ridges through 
a growth of scrubby blackjacks, which broke up 
Sigel's men and also the eager Confederates who 
were trying to cut them off. 

Col. Elijah Gates, 1st Mo. Cav., Price's Division, 
led the pursuers with great activity and skill. There 
were incessant assaults with constant volleys of ar- 
tillery, until Col. Osterhaus, who had reached Cur- 
tis's line, was ordered back to his relief, preceded by 
Col. Bussey with the 3d Iowa Cav. When they met 
Gen. Sigel he had just broken through the Confed- 
erate cavalry, which was still making efforts to sur- 
round him, but the arrival of the reinforcements 
caused the Confederates to withdraw, and the Union 
troops marched back to the camp which had been 
formed at Sugar Creek. The Union loss in this 
affair was reported as 35 killed and wounded. 



GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND. 321 

After a forced march of 42 miles from Huntsville, 
Col. Vandever's Brigade reached Pea Ridge at dusk, 
and Curtis had his whole army together. A night 
attack from the south was confidently expected, and 
every preparation was made for it. 

When night came on Van Dorn built fires, pretend- 
ing to go into camp, but moved forward until he 
came upon the blocked road, which halted him until 
after midnight, when he moved forward much em- 
barrassed by the obstructions Dodge had placed in 
the wretched roads. Dodge on his return from 
blockading the roads notified Gen. Curtis of Price's 
movement to the rear, but Gen. Curtis did not believe 
it, as other reports were to the effect that Van 
Dorn's attack would be on the Sugar Creek front. 

Price having been delayed until after midnight, 
did not reach the telegraph road, a mile or so north 
of Elkhom Tavern, until 7 o'clock on the morning of 
the 7th. 

McCulloch, in the meanwhile, was forming his 
men in the fields and woods near Leetown, west of 
Pea Ridge, with Albert Pike's Indians behind him. 

While, therefore, Curtis's men were straining their 
eyes southward from his strongly fortified position 
on Sugar Creek for the advance of the enemy, the 
whole Confederate army had gained their flank and 
rear, with Price's Division directly across their line 
of communication and retreat. 

Seeing no enemy in front, Curtis's men had a 
good, leisurely breakfast, but about 7 o'clock their 
commander was startled to learn of McCulloch's posi- 
tion on his right and Van Dorn and Price in his 
rear. With great promptness he faced his men 
about and swung his line back so that his new right 



322 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

— formerly his left — rested on Elkhorn Tavern, 
while his left rested where his old right had been, 
on the slope above Sugar Creek. This reversed the 
order of the divisions — Col, Carr's being the right 
at Elkhorn Tavern and Gen. Asboth's the extreme 
left, with Col. Osterhaus's and Col. Davis's in the 
center. 

It was now about 8:30 o'clock, and Gen. Curtis 
directed Col. Osterhaus to advance a force of cav- 
alry, artillery and infantry and bring on the battle. 

There was soon after a swelling up of the firing 
about Elkhorn Tavern, where Carr was, which dis- 
turbed Curtis. He wanted the battle where he was 
preparing for it, and hoped that his opening it would 
stop any flank movements to his right. While Oster- 
haus was getting ready to advance, Curtis rode over 
to Elkhorn Tavern to see what the trouble was with 
Carr. 

During the early morning Price's troops getting 
into position on the main road had run afoul of the 
Union pickets about a mile northeast of Elkhorn 
Tavern. A little after 7 o'clock two companies of 
cavalry and one of infantry were sent out in that 
direction to investigate. They found a force of cav- 
alry, which they drove back until they saw the woods 
full of Con:£ederates, when they took cover behind 
trees and rocks and began a noisy skirmish, with the 
enemy slowly pressing forward and extending out 
on both flanks, as Van Dorn and Price brought their 
troops up and put them into line. 

The affair showed such seriousness that Col. 
Dodge came up about 9 o'clock with his brigade, and 
formed in line of battle to the right of Elkhorn Tav- 
ern, with the 35th 111. on the left, the 4th Iowa in 



GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND. 323 

the center, the 3d 111. Cav. on the right, and the pieces 
of the 1st Iowa Battery distributed along the line, 
and immediately moved forward and engaged the 
enemy. 

In the meanwhile Van Dorn and Price were plac- 
ing their strong force of eight batteries in advan- 
tageous positions to crush out the Union artillery 
and pave the way for the advance of the infantry. 
When the storm burst the Confederate artillery 
quickly overwhelmed the Union guns, but Col. Dodge 
was able, after a sharp struggle, to beat back across 
the open fields the advance of the very much superior 
forces of the Missouri divisions, commanded by 
Gens. Steen, Clark, Frost, Rains and Green. He 
was so hard pressed, however, that Col. Carr, who 
accompanied Col. Dodge, sent back for his other bri- 
gade — Col. Vandever's — a mile and a half away, 
which arrived and went into position near Elkhorn 
Tavern in time to aid in repelling a fresh assault. 

More artillery had been brought up, but not 
enough to successfully contend with Van Dorn's 
massed guns. 

The Union infantry lay behind the cover of fences, 
logs and stumps, and when the Confederate infantry 
was pushed forward waited until it was within 100 
paces, and then poured a deadly fire into it which 
shattered the ranks and drove it in retreat. Gen. 
Slack, one of Price's ablest brigade commanders, was 
killed and Lieut.-Col. Cearnal severely wounded. 

There was a lull in the battle about 2 o'clock while 
Van Dorn and Price were reforming their men for a 
fresh and more determined assault. The brunt of 
it fell upon Col. Vandever on the crest of a hill about 
300 yards north of Elkhorn Tavern. Vandever sue- 



324 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

ceeded in driving back the enemy, though at a great 
cost, since the 9th Iowa lost upward of 100 men and 
Col. Phelps's 26th Mo. about 75. 

Though the enemy was repulsed. Col. Vandever 
deemed it better to fall back to Elkhorn Tavern, leav- 
ing the battleground in the possession of the enemy. 

Col. Carr sent to Gen. Curtis for reinforcements, 
but Curtis, still believing that the main fighting was 
in front of Leetown, could only spare him his head- 
quarters guard, with two howitzers. He also sent 
urgent counsel to Carr to "persevere" and hold his 
ground with the utmost obstinacy. 

Another lull in the battle occurred while Van Dorn 
and Price were bringing up and forming fresh 
troops. This time it was Gen. Clark's Missouri Di- 
vision, reinforced by other troops. The Union 
soldiers received it, as they had the others, lying be- 
hind fences and logs and waiting until the enemy 
was where every shot would tell. 

It was about 3 o'clock when this charge was re- 
pulsed. 

Again Col. Carr sent to Gen. Curtis for reinforce- 
ments, and this time the General sent him five com- 
panies of the 8th Ind., under Lieut.-Col. Shunk, and 
three rifled cannon. 

Van Dorn and Price now brought up everything, 
and concentrated their energies for a supreme effort 
to drive the stubborn Yankees from the field and 
achieve a victory before darkness should intervene. 
Their artillery speedily overpowered and drove off 
the Union guns, but when the infantry advanced it 
met the same terrific fire. This time the rebels did 
not give way, but pressed on around the left flank 
so that the Second (Vandever's) Brigade had to fall 



GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND. 325 

back. The First Brigade (Dodge's) held its position 
until night. The log barricades it had built enabled 
it to defeat charge after charge of the enemy, and 
when they swung around this flank a part of the 
8th Ind. and 3d 111., in a countercharge, drove the 
enemy back, protecting and holding that flank until 
dusk. In this bloody melee Lieut.-Col. Herron and 
Lieut.-Col. Chandler were wounded and captured, 
and nearly all the field oflficers were more or less 
severely wounded. Col. Dodge had three horses shot 
under him, and was himself wounded, and Col. Carr 
received the fourth wound of that day. Three of 
the Union guns were taken. 

The Second Brigade when it fell back took up a 
new and strong position a quarter of a mile to the 
rear, facing open ground, and resumed the battle. 

As evening was coming on, Curtis became at last 
convinced that the fighting in his front was over, 
and started the First and Second Divisions over to 
the right to the assistance of the Fourth. Gen. 
Asboth hurried forward in person with four com- 
panies of the 2d Mo. and four guns of the 2d Ohio 
Battery, and assisted in checking and driving back 
the last assault. 

Gen. Curtis came up, formed a new line along the 
edge of the timber, with the fields in front, and the 
men lay down on their arms for the night. 

Let us return to the left, in front of Leetown, 
where the main battle had been expected by both 
sides. 

Col. Osterhaus does not seem to have formed any 
very clear plan when he went out from the center 
at 9 o'clock to open the battle with McCulloch's and 
Pike's forces. Gen. Curtis sent Col. Bussey out in 



326 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

advance with five companies of the 3d Iowa Cav., 
four of the 5th Mo. Cav., four companies of the 1st 
Mo. Cav., and two companies of the 4th Mo. Cav., 
with three pieces of Capt. Elbert's Battery. Col. 
Greusel's Brigade of infantry followed the cavalry 
at a short distance. 

Col. Bussey went out to Leetown and thence to 
the open fields about half a mile north. The infan- 
try took position in the fields north of Leetown. Col. 
Osterhaus came up to the head of the cavalry column 
where Col. Bussey was, and they saw the Confed- 
erates in plain view about a quarter of a mile away. 
It was Van Dorn's trains and cavalry guards which 
they saw moving towards the telegraph road. They 
did not see, however, McCulloch's troops, Mcintosh's 
Brigade of cavalry and Pike's Indians formed in 
heavy masses to the right and close to them. 

Col. Osterhaus ordered Capt. Welfley to open on 
the men in front, and the shells caused a very visible 
stampede. Osterhaus then ordered Col. Bussey to 
send two companies down the road to investigate the 
position. Col. Bussey ordered Lieut.-Col. Trimble, 
who commanded the 3d Iowa Cav., to execute this 
order, while he gave his attention to the Fremont and 
Benton Hussars, then coming forward and forming 
line in rear of the guns. 

Lieut.-Col. Trimble started with five companies of 
the 3d Iowa Cav., only to run into a heavy line of 
battle at close musket range, receiving a deadly fire 
which killed several of his men and was himself 
severely wounded in the face. 

A minute later Mcintosh, at the head of five regi- 
ments of cavalry, and Pike leading three Indian and 
two Texas regiments, burst upon the cavalry and 



GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND. 327 

over the guns with appalling yells and a tempest of 
bullets. The Union cavalry was simply ridden 
down by overwhelming numbers and mixed up in a 
hand-to-hand conflict, but fought their way out and 
retreated through the open field to Osterhaus's infan- 
try, where Col. Bussey rallied them and formed in 
line. 

The yelling Confederates rushed on until they 
came upon Greusel's line, where their yells were 
hushed by a storm of canister and bullets which 
stopped their advance. The Union line moved into 
the timber, where McCulloch was found working his 
way towards Curtis's camp. A terrible battle was 
fought with varying success until at 11 o'clock Col. 
Jeff Davis came to Osterhaus's assistance with the 
Third Division. The fighting was obstinate and 
bloody, generally duels between opposing regiments 
which crept slowly toward one another until they 
got within 60 or 70 yards, when they would open fire, 
maintaining it until one or the other gave way. The 
irregular lines thus surged back and forward for 
perhaps an hour, with the Union troops generally 
gaining ground. 

During this fighting Gens. McCulloch and Mcin- 
tosh were both shot through the heart by Union 
sharpshooters. Gen. McCulloch, who was easily dis- 
tinguished by his peculiarly-colored clothes, was 
killed by Peter Pelican, of Co. B, 36th 111. How Gen. 
Mcintosh was killed does not appear, further than 
he was shot through the heart. The shooting that 
day was remarkably accurate. The men who held 
the rifles were perfectly accustomed to their use. 

After four hours of constant and desperate fight- 
ing there was a noticeable fading in the vim of the 



328 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

Confederate assaults and diminishing stubbornness 
of resistance to the Union blows. When the Union 
soldiers pushed on through the woods after their 
enemies they found them falling back across the 
fields beyond in great disorder. A few shells from 
the Union guns frustrated all attempts to rally them. 
Osterhaus and Davis pushed their skirmishers 
through the woods for a mile, and the cavalry went 
still further, finding the three guns of the flying bat- 
tery with the carriages burned off, and reporting 
back that everything seemed to be in full retreat for 
Bentonville. 

One squad of cavalry came back with Col. Hebert, 
the next in command to Gen. Mcintosh ; Col. Mitchell 
and Maj. W. F. Tunnard, of the 3d La., of the same 
division ; a Major, two Captains and 33 privates, all 
having been separated from their commands in the 
rush through the woods, and unable to regain them. 

After the fall of Gens. McCulloch and Mcintosh 
the command in that part of the field devolved upon 
Gen. Albert Pike, and it is rare that so great a re- 
sponsibility falls upon one so unfit. Something of 
a poet Pike certainly was ; much more of a success- 
ful politician and place-hunter, but nothing of a lead- 
er of men upon the battlefield. His soldiership be- 
came sicklied o'er when he went beyond the parade 
ground. Apparently he did not know what to do, 
nor, if he did, how to do it. 

Regimental commanders reported that they were 
unable to find him. 

His own verbose report, made six days after the 
battle, is quite full of unintentional humor. He says 
that after the first charge the field was "a mass of 
the utmost confusion, all talking, riding this way and 



GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND. 329 

that, and listening to no orders from any one." He 
could get no one to pay any attention to what he said. 
His Indians, who had stopped in the charge to scalp 
the dead and wounded, would at once stampede 
whenever a shell was thrown in their direction. He 
devoted himself for a couple of hours to what has 
been described as "heavy standing around." 

Then he fell back with some of the troops a short 
distance and did some more standing around, until a 
Union artillerist noticed him and threw a shell in 
his direction, when he fell back out of range, and 
again stood around until some one informed him that 
a body of 7,000 Federals was moving around the left 
flank. He quickly decided that the "position was 
not tenable," and fell back still more, "when the offi- 
cers assured me that the men were in such condition 
that it would be worse than useless to bring them 
into acton again that day." Such is the demoraliza- 
tion of "standing around." 

Finally, it occurred to him to take what troops he 
could gather and join Gen. Van Dorn, whose cannon 
had been thundering two or three miles away all this 
time. First, however, he decided to march them 
back some distance to a creek, "where they could all 
get a drink, and join Gen. Van Dorn in the morn- 
ing." 

Col. E. Greer, 3d Tex. Cav., who became the 
senior officer of McCulloch's Division, reported that 
he gathered up fragments of regiments to the num- 
ber of 3,000 after the casualties to his superiors, and 
being informed that Gen. Pike had left the field with 
the remainder of the command, retired some dis- 
tance, sending word to Gen. Van Dorn that, unless 
he ordered otherwise, he would march to join him 
at 1 : 30 in the morning. Van Dorn approved of this. 



330 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

The night of March 7 closed down with a tumult 
of widely-varying emotions in the 33,000 men who 
joined battle in the morning. All of Gen. Pike's 
Indians, except a portion of Col. Standwaitie's regi- 
ment of Cherokee half-breeds, and several thousand 
whites were rushing off toward the Arkansas River 
at full speed. The remnant of McCulloch's Divi- 
sion, which Col. Greer had rallied, and which had 
some fight left in it, unutterably weary, hungry and 
depressed, bivouacked near the battlefield, awaiting 
Van Dorn's orders. Price's Missourians, who were 
no less weary and hungry than their comrades, from 
a night of severest marching and a day of sharp 
fighting, camped on the ground which they had 
wrung from Carr's Division by seven hours of bitter 
struggling and the cost of a number of prominent 
officers and several hundred men. Their success, 
though dearly bought, was sufficient to encourage 
them. They had captured several hundred prisoners 
and two pieces of artillery. They had driven Carr's 
Division back a quarter of a mile, were across the 
Union line of retreat, and Van Dorn had his head- 
quarters at Elkhorn Tavern. 

Price had greatly endeared himself to his troops by 
his conduct during the day. He was everywhere at 
the front, leading and encouraging his men, and 
though wounded in the arm had refused to quit the 
field. His generalship was not so conspicuous as his 
soldiership. With him and Van Dorn it was the 
story of Wilson's Creek over again. Instead of lin- 
ing up their superior force and sending all forward 
with a crushing solidarity, they had personally led 
detachments, and when these had been fought out, 
gone back and brought up fresh forces. 



GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND. 3S1 

Van Dorn had shown generalship only in the con- 
centration of his artillery. He had been so engrossed 
in this, and in pushing forward detachments he had 
better left to the Missouri leadership that he neg- 
lected his powerful right wing, which had gone to 
pieces, as there was no one left to take the place of 
McCulloch and Mcintosh. He hoped, though, with 
the aid of 3,000 men whom Greer was bringing to 
him, to complete his victory in the morning. 

There was much to depress Curtis's men in their 
fireless bivouac south of Elkhorn Tavern. Dodge's 
and Vandever's Brigades had been very roughly 
handled in the long struggle. Rebel bullets had made 
sad havoc in their ranks. They had lost two guns 
and over a quarter of their force in killed and 
wounded. Osterhaus's and Davis's Divisions, in the 
center, had had costly encounters with the enemy, 
and had lost five pieces of artillery. They did not 
then know that in reality the victory was theirs, but 
believed that most of the enemy had merely left their 
front to augment the mass which was formed across 
their line of retreat. They therefore looked forward 
to the morrow with well-grounded apprehension. 
They had no rations in their haversacks, and their 
animals had been without forage for two or three 
days. Unless the enemy could be driven from their 
"cracker line" the very next day, starvation for man 
and beast stared them in the face. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE VICTORY IS WON. 

GEN. CURTIS'S army was far from realizing 
as the night closed down on that exciting 
March 7 how completely it had whipped 
the overwhelming numbers of Van Dorn, Price, 
McCulloch, Mcintosh and Pike. Those of Jeff C. 
Davis's and Osterhaus's Divisions, who had done the 
heavy fighting on the Leetown front, knew that they 
had driven away the mass of the enemy in their 
front until there was no longer any show of opposi- 
tion. They of Carr's Division, on the extreme right, 
the brigades of Dodge and Vandever, realized that 
they had had a terrible fight, in which they had gen- 
erally defeated the enemy, inflicting great slaughter, 
though they had suffered heavily themselves. Still, 
the enemy had gained a little ground. The men of 
Carr's Division felt that now, since the rest of the 
army was coming to their help, they would undoubt- 
edly win a victory in the morning, and clear the 
rebels from the road leading back to Springfield. 
This confidence was shared by the men of Jeff C. 
Davis's and Osterhaus's Divisions, who had come 
to their assistance, and they all felt more hopeful 
than did Sigel and Asboth's Division, which had 
taken little or no part in the fighting. The follow- 
ing remarkable letter from Gen. Asboth to Gen. 
Curtis, written at 2 o'clock in the morning of March 
8, reveals the general belief of that portion of the 
army that the condition was desperate and it would 
require extraordinary efforts to release the army 
from a very hazardous situation : 

(332) 



THE VICTORY IS WON. 333 

Headquarters Second Division, 
Camp Near Sugar Creek, Ark., 

March 8, 1862; 2 a. m. 
General: As Gen. Sigel, under whose command you have 
placed me, with my division, has not yet returned to our 
camp, I beg to address you, General, directly, reporting that 
all the troops of the Second Division were yesterday, as well 
as now, in the night, entirely without forage; and as we are 
cut off from all supplies by the enemy, outnumbering our 
forces several times, and as one more day without forage will 
make our horses unserviceable, consequently the cavalry and 
artillery as well as the teams, of no use at all, I would respect- 
fully solicit a decided concentrated movement, with the view 
of cutting our way through the enemy where you may deem 
it more advisable, and save by this, if not the whole, at least 
the larger part of our surrounded army. 

Gen. Curtis seems to have realized quite early in 
the afternoon the condition of affairs on his left in 
front of Leetown, and that the fight there was over. 
He therefore directed the cavalry under Col. Bussey 
to take up the best positions, holding the ground. 
All the infantry and artillery were ordered over 
toward the Springfield road to form a new line of 
battle, substantially a prolongation of that estab- 
lished at the close of the fighting by the stubborn 
resistance of Dodge's and Vandever's Brigades, 
which had so decisively repulsed the last attacks 
upon them the previous evening. 

Sigel, who had a remarkable faculty for incurring 
criticism in every battle, had not made use of Gen. 
Asboth's Division at any time to relieve the pressure 
upon Davis and Osterhaus, so that it had hardly 
fired a shot. He now had trouble about getting his 
troops into line, and it was 8 o'clock in the morning 
before he finally took his place on the left, notwith- 
standing the fact that he was ordered to have his 
divisions in line before daylight. Curtis had now 
all his artillery up, and though it was not so numer- 
ous as that opposed to him, it was better equipped 



334 



THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 



and drilled, and promptly opened the battle with a 
fire to which the Confederate guns could make no 
adequate reply. The whole line then moved for- 
ward with blazing rifles, sweeping unchecked up the 
hillsides, straight for the enemy's front. In a few 
minutes the Confederate line 
parted in the center and disap- 
peared. Most of the Missourians 
fell back toward Keetsville, di- 
rectly north. Greer and his 
remnants ran around our left 
toward Bentonville, pursued by 
Col. Bussey's cavalry. Van Dorn 
and Price with another remnant 
broke around our right, going 
through an obscure hollow and 
taking the road to Huntsville. 
Like most men of impetuous initiative. Van Dorn 
when he was whipped was badly whipped. He sent 
riders post haste to order his trains burned, but 
Gen. Green, who commanded the train guard, was 
of cooler mettle, and succeeded in getting the trains 
away safely. 

Gen. Sigel pursued the central portion through 
Keetsville, seven miles to the north, capturing nearly 
200 prisoners and a great quantity of arms and 
stores. He believed Curtis would retreat, and was 
well on his way to Springfield when ordered back 
by Curtis to make his camp on the battlefield with 
the rest. 

Gen. Curtis officially reported his loss as follows: 




John Ross. 



THE VICTORY IS WON. 



335 



UNION LOSSES. 



Command. 



Killed. 



Wounded Missing. 



3§ ' S 






First (Sigel's) Division 

Second (Asboth's) Division- 
Third (Davis's) Division 

Fourth (Carr's) Division 

3d Iowa Cav. (Col. Bussey) 
Bowen's battalion 



60 
256 
491 

18 
2 



144 
119 
329 
701 
52 



Total. 



190 



56 



916 



It will be noticed by the above figures that 
Davis's Division lost four officers anci 42 men killeci, 
18 officers and 256 men wounded, while Sigel's two 
divisions lost only three officers and 28 men killed, 
seven officers and 149 men wounded. 

The heaviest loss fell upon the 9th Iowa, which 
had 39 killed, 176 wounded and four missing. The 
next heaviest was upon the 4th Iowa, which had 18 
killed, 139 wounded and three missing. 

Gen. Van Dorn estimated his loss at 1,000 killed 
and wounded and 300 missing. This is known to 
be inaccurate, because more Confederate than Union 
dead were buried on the battlefield, and Gen. Curtis 
sent 500 prisoners to the rear. 

The question naturally occurs: Why did Van 
Dorn relinquish such a supreme effort with such a 
small loss? 

Our amusing acquaintance, Gen. Pike, does not 
conceal the fact that he and those around him were 
very badly whipped. After joining Van Dorn he 
resumed his old habit of standing around "observing 
the enemy." He reports that he did this for two 



336 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

hours at a stretch when Curtis was delivering the 
final crushing blows upon Van Dorn. He then 
moved with much promptness toward the rear, for 
an officer came up with the stunning intelligence, 
"You are not safe here, for the enemy's cavalry are 
within 150 yards of you." This seemed to have 
escaped his "observation" up to that time. He rode 
off, and his pace was accelerated by hearing another 
officer cry out. "Close up ; close up ; or you will all be 
cut to pieces." 

He halted presently, but had to start again, for 
a shell was sent by the enemy up the road from the 
point of the hill around which he had just passed. 
The cry of "The cavalry are coming was raised, and 
everything became confusion." He escaped the 
"enemy's cavalry by rapid riding," but was unable 
to get ahead of his fastgoing troops and stop them, 
until they reached Elm Spring, many miles away. 
He came to this sage conclusion : 

The enemy, I learn, had been encamped at Pea Vine Ridge 
for three weeks, and Sigel's advance was but a ruse to in- 
duce our forces to march northward and give them battle 
in positions selected by themselves. 

There were others who shared his feelings ; for he 
says: 

Just before night, Saturday afternoon, I had met Col. Rec- 
tor in the hills, who told me he had about 500 men with 
him; that they were in such condition that they could not 
go more than six or eight miles a day. and that he thought 
he would take them into the mountains, hide their arms in 
a secure place, and, as he could not keep them together and 
feed them, let them disperse. He a.sked my opinion as to 
this, and I told him that no one knew where the rest of the 
army was; that Gens. Van Dorn and Price were supposed 
to be captured and the train taken; that if his men dis- 
persed with their arms they would throw them away, and 
that I thought the course he proposed was the wisest one 
under the circumstances. The enemy were pursuing on 
all the roads, and as it was almost impossible for even a 
dozen men in a body to procure food, I still do not see what 
better he could have done. 



THE VICTORY IS WON. 337 

Curtis's cavalry found these guns and brought 
them into camp; also, all the artillery that was cap- 
tured the day before from Davis's and Carr's Divi- 
sions. 

Gen. Van Dorn made several reports which are 
strangely inconsistent with one another, and seem 
the natural efforts of a man to find the best excuses 
that will present themselves from day to day for his 
failure in a great effort. His first report, which was 
to Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston and the Confederate 
War Department, and sent two days after the battle, 
reads as follows : 

Headquarters Trans-Mississippi District, 
March 9, via Hog Eye; March 10, 1862. 

Fought the enemy, about 20,000 strong, 7th and 8th, at 
Elkhorn, Ark. Battle first day from 10 a. m. until after dark; 
loss heavy on both sides. Gens. McCulloch and Mcintosh and 
Col. Hebert were killed; Gens. Price and Slack were wounded 
(Gen. Price flesh wound in the arm) ; the others badly 
wounded, if not mortally; many officers killed and wounded; 
but as there are some doubts in regard to several I cannot yet 
report their names. Slept on the battlefield first night, hav- 
ing driven the enemy from their position. The death of Gens. 
McCulloch and Mcintosh and Col. Hebert early in the action 
threw the troops on the right under their commands in confu- 
sion. The enemy took a second and strong position. Being 
without provisions and the right wing somewhat disorganized, 
determined to give battle on the right on their front for the 
purpose only of getting off the field without the danger of a 
panic, which I did with success, but with some losses. 

I am now encamped with my whole army 14 miles west of 
Fayetteville, having gone entirely around the enemy. I am 
separated from my train, but think it safe on the Elm Springs 
road to Boston Mountains. The reason why I determined to 
give battle at once upon my arrival to assume command of 
the army I will give in report at an early day. 

In this it will be seen that he disclaimed any in- 
tention on the second day of making more than a 
fight to cover his retreat. This is clearly an after- 
thought to excuse the poor battle that he put up. 
There is no doubt that he had still hoped to whip 
Curtis's army, and that he had men enough to do it, 
if they had been handled properly and had fought 



338 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

with the same determination and aggressiveness 
that the Union troops did. For some weeks he con- 
tinued to send in reports, explanatory and partially 
contradictory of his first. 

Gen. Sterling Price's report, made March 22, 
gives no idea that the retreat was determined on 
after the events of the first day, but says with rela- 
tion to the close of the struggle on the evening of 
March 7 : 

The fiercest struggle of the day now ensued; but the im- 
petuosity of my troops was irresistible, and the enemy was 
driven back and completely routed. My right had engaged 
the enemy's center at the same time with equal daring and 
equal success, and had already driven them from their posi- 
tion at Elkhorn Tavern. Night alone prevented us from 
achieving a complete victory, of which we had already 
gathered some of the fruits, having taken two pieces of 
artillery and a quantity of stores. 

My troops bivouacked upon the ground which they had 
so nobly won. almost exhausted and without food, but fear- 
lessly and anxiously awaiting the renewal of the battle in 
the morning. 

The morning disclosed the enemy strengthened in position 
and numbers and encouraged by the reverses which had un- 
happily befallen the other wing of the army when the brave 
Texan chieftain, Ben McCulloch, and his gallant comrade, 
Gen. Mcintosh, had fallen, fearlessly and triumphantly lead- 
ing their devoted soldiers against the invaders of their native 
land. They knew, too, that Hebert — the accomplished leader 
of that veteran regiment, the Louisiana Third, which won so 
many laurels on the bloody field of the Oak Hills, and which 
then as well as now sustained the proud reputation of Louisi- 
ana — was a prisoner in their hands. They were not slow to 
renew the attack; they opened upon us vigorously, but my 
trusty men faltered not. They held their position unmoved 
until (after several of the batteries not under my command 
had left the field) they were ordered to retire. My troops 
obeyed it unwillingly, with faces turned defiantly against the 
foe. 

It will be noticed that Price is not as frank as 
usual in giving reasons for his rapid retirement at 
the moment when, he claims, he was in the full flush 
of victory. "The retirement of several batteries not 
under my command" is a conspicuously inadequate 
excuse. 



THE VICTORY IS WON. 339 

In the course of a month or so Van Dorn managed 
to gather himself together again so as to begin 
voluminous communications with Richmond, ex- 
plaining that "I was not defeated, but only foiled in 
my intentions." 

He proposed to return to his old Pocahontas plan, 
"relieve Gen. Beauregard by marching my army 
upon the Federals at New Madrid or Cape Girar- 
deau, and thence on to St. Louis." He would turn 
his cavalry loose on Gen. Curtis's long line of com- 
munications, and send Gen. Pike with his Indians 
to harry southwestern Missouri and Kansas. 

The Confederate War Department did not think 
highly of this, but shortly transferred him and his- 
troops east of the . Mississippi. 

Gen. Price was also transferred east of the Mis- 
sissippi, with the Missouri troops he had taken into 
the Confederate army, and his farewell to the Mis- 
souri State troops is worth reproducing as a speci- 
men of the heated rhetoric customary in those 
days: 

Headquarters Missouri State Guard, 

Des Arc, Ark., April 8, 1862. 
(General Orders No. 79.) 

Soldiers of the State Guard: I command you no longer. I 
have this day resigned the commission which your patient 
endurance, your devoted patriotism and your dauntless brav- 
ery have made so honorable. I have done this that I may the 
better serve you, our State and our country — that I may the 
sooner lead you back to the fertile prairies, the rich wood- 
lands and majestic streams of our beloved Missouri — that I 
may the more certainly restore you to your once happy homes 
and to the loved ones there. 

Five thousand of those who have fought side by side with 
us under the Grizzly Bears of Missouri have followed me into 
the Confederate camp. They appeal to you, as I do, by all 
the tender memories of the past, not to leave us now, but to 
go with us wherever the path of duty may lead, till we shall 
have conquered a peace and won our independence by bril- 
liant deeds upon new fields of battle. 

Soldiers of the State Guards! Veterans of six pitched bat- 



340 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

ties and nearly 20 skirmishes! Conquerors in them all! Your 
country, with its "ruined hearths and shrines," calls upon you 
to rally once more in her defense, and rescue her forever from 
the terrible thraldom which threatens her. I know that she 
will not call in vain. The insolent and barbarous hordes 
which have dared to invade our soil and to desecrate our 
homes have just met with a signal overthrow beyond the 
Mississippi. Now is the time to end this unhappy war. If 
every man will but do his duty, his own roof will shelter him 
in peace from the storms of the coming Winter. 

Let not history record that the men who bore with patience 
the privations of Cowskin Prairie, who endured uncomplain- 
ingly the burning heat of a Missouri Summer and the frosts 
and snows of a Missouri Winter; that the men who met the 
enemy at Carthage, at Oak Hills, at Fort Scott, at Lexington 
and on numberless lesser battlefields in Missouri, and met 
them but to conquer them; that the men who fought so 
bravely and so well at Elkhorn; that the unpaid soldiery of 
Missouri were, after so many victories and after so much 
suffering, unequal to the great task of achieving the inde- 
pendence of their magnificent State. 

Soldiers, I go but to mark a pathway to our homes. Fol- 
low me! 

Very few but those who had already been cajoled 
into the Confederate service followed. 

A great deal of bitterness was developed from the 
discovery upon the battlefield of a number of Union 
dead who had been scalped by Pike's Indans. Many 
of these belonged to the 3d Iowa Cav., and the inves- 
tigation of the matter was conducted by order of 
Col. Bussey, by his Adjutant, John W. Noble, after- 
wards Secretary of the Interior. Col. Bussey be- 
came Assistant Secretary of the Interior. 

The bodies of at least eight of the 3d Iowa Cav. 
were exhumed and found to have been scalped and 
the bodies otherwise maltreated after their deaths 
by the scalping knives and tomahawks of merciless 
Indians. The matter was made subject of a 
strong communication from Gen. Curtis to Gen. 
Van Dorn, and the latter's Adjutant-General, Dab- 
ney H. Maury, replied, cordially condemning any 
such deeds, but claiming that, on the other hand. 



THE VICTORY IS WON. 341 

many prisoners of war had been killed in cold blood 
by Curtis's men, who were alleged to be Germans. 
The letter said : 

The General commanding feels sure that you will do your 
part as he will in preventing such atrocities in the future, 
and that the perpetrators of them will be brought to jus- 
tice, whether Germans or Choctaws. 

Gen. Curtis was promoted to Major-General for 
his victory, and well deserved that honor, in spite of 
some bitter critics. Sigel was also made a Major- 
General, with much less reason. Asboth had his 
withheld Brigadier-Generalcy confirmed to him. 
Cols. Carr, Davis and Dodge were made Brigadier- 
Generals, but Cols. Osterhaus, White and Bussey, 
who had done conspicuous fighting, had to wait some 
months for their promotion, and Cols. Greusel and 
Pattison never received it. 

Among those who received praise for their gal- 
lantry that day was Maj. John Charles Black, of the 
37th 111., later a Colonel and Brigadier-General, 
Commissioner of Pensions under President Cleve- 
land, Representative-at-large from Illinois, Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
and now President of the United States Civil Ser- 
vice Commission. Maj. Black was severely wounded 
in the sword arm in the fight, but refused to leave 
the field until Gen. White ordered him to do so. 

Another was Maj. Phillip Sidney Post, of the 59th 
111. He later became Colonel and Brigadier-General ; 
was left for dead on the field at Nashville, but re- 
covered, to be Consul-General at Vienna and repre- 
sent Illinois for many years in Congress. He was 
also wounded in the sword arm, and also refused 
to leave the field until he was peremptorily ordered 
to do so. 



342 THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. 

The moral effect of the victory was prodigious 
and far-reaching. High expectations had been 
raised by Van Dorn, McCulloch, Mcintosh, Price and 
Albert Pike, which were abjectly prostrated. The 
mass of fugitives, white and red, who scattered over 
Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian Territory, each 
with his tale of awful slaughter and disheartened 
defeat, had a blighting effect upon the Secessionists, 
and greatly strengthened the Union sentiment. 

It was a desperate two-days' wrestle between the 
very best that the Southern Confederacy could pro- 
duce west of the Mississippi River — the ablest com- 
manders and the finest troops — and a small Union 
army. It was breaking test, under the fairest con- 
ditions, of the fighting qualities of the two combat- 
ants. 

Though bitter, merciless, sanguinary fighting was 
to perturb the State for three years longer, it was no 
longer war, but guerilla raiding and bandittism, 
robbery and murder under a pretext of war. Price, 
indeed, made an invasion of the State two years 
later, but it was a hurried raid, without hope of per- 
manent results. 

At the conclusion of the battle Missouri was as 
firmly anchored to the Union as her neighbors, Illi- 
nois, Iowa and Kansas. 

The battle for Missouri had been fought and won. 



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